The advice of HCP on when to treat the attacks and the number of injections to use
When suffering an HAE attack, 55% (N=111) of participants said that they typically need one injection to treat it, 29% said they needed two injections of their medication, and a further 5% three injections. When taking medication at the onset of early signs and before the swelling has started, 65% (N=76) of participants said they typically need one injection to treat an HAE attack, 21% said they needed two injections, and 6% three injections (Figure 5). This suggests that treating early may reduce medication use to some extent. A higher percentage of female participants (54%) waited for the swelling to start before taking their medication than male participants (44%).
Regarding how patients understand the advice of the HCP, a large majority of HAE patients (70%) said their HCP has advised them to ‘treat early’. Of those, 84% said their HCP explained what they meant by ‘treating early’. However, there remains mixed understanding among participants about what ‘treating early’ meant: 60% thought it meant taking their medication as soon as they experienced an early sign; whilst 26% believed it meant taking their medication if the early signs/symptoms persisted or developed and a further 13% believed it meant taking the medication as soon as the swelling started (Figure 6).