Comparative assessment of physicians’ and senior medical students’ basic knowledge in treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most common pathologies of the respiratory system. This disease ranks third in the group of the main causes of death in the world. The effective treatment of COPD has been developed by today. However, a significant part of physicians has an insufficient amount of education in this matter. Materials and methods: The article represents the results of anonymous prospective survey within the ASCO project (full title – “Assessment of Senior Medical Students in the Field of COPD”), aimed at assessing the basic knowledge in the COPD treatment. The survey involved 321 physicians and 221 senior medical students from ten cities of Russia and Ukraine. Results and discussion: According to the survey, the following levels of correct answers were given by the doctors and students: possible fixed combinations of β2-agonist – 33.9% and 24.5%; the optimal delivery device for a patient – 50.8% and 41.8; the correct drugs for COPD initial therapy with a high risk of exacerbations – 31.7% and 15.3%, and with a low risk – 54.9% and 25.9%, respectively. The correct drugs for COPD aggravation were selected by 43.3% of doctors and 34.5% of students; the right empirical treatment of COPD infectious exacerbation – by 72.4% and 40%, and the correct reserve drugs – by 63.9% and 36.2%, respectively. Conclusion: The survey showed that the respondents had medium level of knowledge in COPD treatment. Hence, curricula need to be adjusted in medical universities, and additional educational activities are required for medical practitioners in order to improve the quality of their knowledge in this field.

N6-methyladenosine-methylomic landscape of lung tissues of mice with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

“…Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disease that causes persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow restriction, owing to airway and/or alveolar abnormalities ( 1 ). The World Health Organization survey in 2019 reported 380 million COPD cases in the world and more than 3 million patients annually die from this pathology, which is very alarming ( 2 , 3 ). The pathogenesis of COPD involves inflammation orchestrated by various inflammatory cells and chemokines.…”

Pharmacotherapy and other aspects of senior medical students’ knowledge in community-acquired pneumonia: the final results of the KNOCAP II project

“…Macrolides should be preferred if it is impossible to use aminopenicillins (idiosyncrasy, allergy), and also with a suspected "atypical" etiology of the disease (S. pneumoniae and M. рneumoniae) (Breitling et al 2018;Lee et al 2018). It is worth noting that parenteral forms of drugs during out-patient treatment do not have proven advantages over oral ones, at the same time, they pose a threat to the development of post-injection complications in the form of abscesses and require additional costs for administration (Chuchalin et al 2010;Bontsevich et al 2019a). Only 9.1% of the senior students answered this question correctly, 27.2% of the students answered partially correctly, and 63.7% gave the wrong answer.…”

The Effectiveness of Supplementation with Key Vitamins, Minerals, Antioxidants and Specific Nutritional Supplements in COPD—A Review

“…Vitamin D has been shown to reduce the level of oxidative stress and the number of circulating interleukins (e.g., 6,9,13), which means that vitamin D treatment of COPD patients can improve their symptoms [101]. Khan et al revealed a relationship between serum vitamin D levels and COPD progression [109].…”

“…Acute exacerbations and comorbidities are important prognostic factors for the severity of COPD [ 2 , 4 ]. COPD is an underdiagnosed disease with increasing morbidity and mortality worldwide [ 4 , 5 ], and is projected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to become the third leading cause of death by 2022 [ 6 ]. Its causes include changing smoking habits, an ageing population, and certain respiratory infections [ 7 , 8 ].…”

“…COPD is not only a disease characterized by chronic, progressive loss of respiratory function and respiratory and systemic inflammation; it can also affect the entire body, leading to weight loss in approximately 20–50% of cases, which can become pathological [ 3 , 12 ]. Correcting malnutrition is an important part of maintenance therapy for COPD, and has been shown to improve exercise tolerance, quality of life, and survival in patients [ 6 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Numerous studies have revealed the benefits of a diet rich in antioxidants in COPD, including vitamins A, C, and E, beta-carotene, and micronutrients such as magnesium, selenium, and zinc [ 14 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”