Safer use of short-acting beta ₂ -agonists: perceiving and responding to risk—a qualitative study

METHODS: People with asthma who overuse SABAs were enrolled into the study through community pharmacist invitation. Semi-structured interviews were completed by telephone or via Zoom. The recordings were transcribed and thematically analyzed using inductive and deductive approaches. RESULTS: Between September 2021 and May 2022, 21 people were interviewed. Data analyses yielded six themes. Three themes related to risk perception including risks related to asthma, medicines, and other factors such as environmental triggers. Three themes related to how people responded to their perceived risk. These included actions taken by some to reduce risk while others chose not to act to reduce risk, despite knowing how to, suggesting a lack of self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study of its kind in a group of Australians who have asthma, a common, as yet incurable, often lifelong chronic health condition. Our interviews yielded rich and sometimes surprising insights into the complexity and number of factors contributing to how people perceive and respond to risks associated with their asthma and with the medicines that they take to manage it.