Pediatric Drug Adherence and Parental Attention: Evidence From Comprehensive Claims Data

Using comprehensive U.S. drug claims data, we show that adherence to asthma control medication declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that young children exhibited a 40 percent decrease in adherence by the end of 2020. The responses were less negative for older children and positive for adults. We provide additional evidence that parental attention played a role in driving this decrease, based on heterogeneity by pre-pandemic mail order usage and number of parental scripts. Policy implications for improving pediatric adherence are discussed.