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

## TL;DR

The study shows that children's asthma medication adherence dropped sharply during the pandemic, likely due to reduced parental attention.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is linking changes in pediatric drug adherence during the pandemic to variations in parental attention.

## Key findings

- Young children's adherence to asthma medication dropped by 40% by the end of 2020.
- Adherence declines were less severe for older children and adults.
- Parental attention influenced adherence, as shown by differences in mail order use and parental prescriptions.

## Abstract

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.