OBJECTIVES : Understanding about treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in Argentina is limited. The objective is to describe the treatment profile of COPD patients affiliated to the Hospital Italiano (HI), in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

METHODS : Retrospective cohort study using electronic medical records of COPD patients from 2014-2017. Patients with ≥40 years at index date with data available 1 year before (baseline) and after (follow-up) were identified. Index date was 1 year after the 1st diagnosis for incident cases and 01-Jan-2015 for prevalent cases (diagnosed before 01-Jan-2014). Treatment dispensed closest to the index date (prevalent) or used as initial treatment (incident) was evaluated, including controllers (inhaled corticosteroid [ICS], long-acting β₂ agonist [LABA] or long-acting muscarinic antagonist [LAMA] and combinations), rescue medication and systemic corticosteroid (SC).

RESULTS : We included 2,861 patients (24.3% incident and 75.7% prevalent). In incident patients, 43.6% had no medication dispensed during the study; 7.3% had SC only and 12.7% had rescue medication only. Initial maintenance therapy was ICS/LABA in 20.3% and triple in 1.2%. In prevalent patients, most (52.6%) had no dispensed medication during baseline. About 22% used ICS/LABA and 3.3% used triple closest to index date. In patients with previous severe COPD exacerbation (emergency room visits/hospitalisation), 18.3% had no dispensed medication and 10.1% used triple.

CONCLUSIONS : There is a lack of optimised treatment in a high proportion of COPD patients affiliated to the HI, highlighting the need of additional care to COPD patients in Argentina.