Yan Chen,1 Xinli Li,2 Dongni Hou,3 Wenhao Li,4 Zhike Liu,4 Meng Zhang,4 IokFai Cheang,2 Peng Shen,5 Hongbo Lin,5 Siyan Zhan,4 Feng Sun,4 Yuanlin Song3,6– 8 

1Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China; 2State Key Laboratory for Innovation and Transformation of Luobing Theory, Department of Cardiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Jiangsu Province Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Centre, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 5Yinzhou District Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 6Shanghai Key Laboratory of Lung Inflammation and Injury, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 7Shanghai Respiratory Research Institute, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 8National Clinical Research Center for Aging and Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Yuanlin Song, Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, Email ylsong70@163.com Feng Sun, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Centre, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, Email sunfeng@bjmu.edu.cn

Purpose: Triple therapy of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), consisting of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), long-acting β 2-agonist (LABA) and long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) has shown benefits in patients with COPD. However, little is known about the use of triple therapy in Chinese patients. This study aims to describe the treatment patterns and the utilization of triple therapy in COPD patients based on real-world data from China.
Patients and Methods: This retrospective study included patients with COPD from the Yinzhou database. Patients aged ≥ 40 years with a diagnosis of COPD were included. Different combinations of ICS, LAMA and LABA prescribed during follow-up were categorized as single, dual, or triple therapies. Descriptive analysis was performed to depict the treatment patterns of each therapy.
Results: A total of 7888 patients were prescribed at least one COPD therapy during the follow-up. Among them, 29.1% were prescribed triple therapy (ICS+LABA+LAMA) with a median (IQR) treatment duration of 3.27 (7.17) months. The majority (68.6%) of patients were prescribed dual therapy with ICS+LABA, while 27.3% and 23.3% of patients were prescribed single therapy with ICS or LAMA, respectively. Regarding treatment sequences during follow-up, 30.1% of patients received dual therapy with ICS+LABA, followed by 11.4% receiving only triple therapy and 10.4% receiving single therapy with ICS alone.
Conclusion: Our study assessed treatment patterns and triple therapy utilization among patients with COPD in China. The majority of patients were treated with ICS+LABA dual therapy. Triple therapy was also widely used, with most patients transitioning from other treatment modalities.

Keywords: COPD, ICS, LABA, LAMA