Poor adherence is an important factor in unstable disease control and treatment failure. There are multiple ways to monitor a patient’s adherence, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. The reasons for poor adherence are multi-factorial, inter-related and often difficult to target for improvement. Although practitioners can implement different methods of adherence, the ultimate aim is to improve health outcomes for the individual and the health care system.

Asthma is a common airway disease, particularly diagnosed in children, often treated with inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting bronchodilators. Due to the disease’s tendency for exacerbations and consequently, when severe will require unscheduled health care utilisation including hospital admissions, considerable research has been done into the effects of medication adherence on asthma control.

This review discusses the difficulties in defining adherence, the reasons for and consequences of poor adherence, and the methods of recording and improving adherence in asthma patients, including an in-depth analysis of the uses of smart inhalers.

依从性差是疾病控制不稳定和治疗失败的重要因素。有多种方法可以监测患者的依从性，每种方法都有各自的优点和缺点。依从性差的原因是多因素的、相互关联的，并且往往难以确定改进的目标。尽管从业者可以实施不同的坚持方法，但最终目标是改善个人和医疗保健系统的健康结果。

哮喘是一种常见的气道疾病，尤其是儿童，通常用吸入皮质类固醇和长效支气管扩张剂治疗。由于该疾病有恶化的趋势，因此当病情严重时需要计划外的医疗保健服务（包括入院），因此已经对药物依从性对哮喘控制的影响进行了大量研究。

本综述讨论了定义依从性的困难、依从性差的原因和后果，以及记录和提高哮喘患者依从性的方法，包括对智能吸入器使用的深入分析。