COPD Management in Primary Care: An Observational, Community Pharmacy–Based Study

Abstract

This observational study on COPD management in primary care highlights 4 main aspects that could be improved: (1) drug adherence, (2) inhalation technique with pMDIs, (3) influenza vaccination in COPD patients younger than 65 years, and (4) smoking cessation.

Impact of community pharmacists in COPD management: Inhalation technique and medication adherence

“…In Belgium, the study of Mehuys et al [9] was the first cross-sectional, observational study on COPD treatment to be conducted in the community pharmacy setting. The study was based in 93 pharmacies and involved 555 COPD patients.…”

“…Thus, despite the obvious importance of inhalation therapy as a treatment strategy in respiratory conditions, the significance of correct IT gets overlooked [9]. The third reason is the lack of clarity within healthcare systems as to which professional has responsibility for IT assessment [4,52] hence pharmacists do not feel accountable for it.…”

“…The importance of IT stems from the fact that inhalation therapy represents the main pillar in COPD treatment [4][5][6][7][8]. It is the best treatment strategy to ensure delivery of adequate concentrations of the administered drug directly to the lungs [3][4][5][9][10][11]. Adherence is defined as the degree by which a patient follows a mutually agreed plan including medication and life style changes [12].…”

Adherence to Therapy in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

“…However, the vaccination rates in patients with chronic lung diseases are low (Nichol et al, 1999;Tuppin et al, 2011), and the willingness to vaccinate differs by age group. The influenza vaccination status is significantly higher in patients aged 65 years or older (86.2%) than in the younger population (65.7%) (Mehuys et al, 2010).…”

Impacto da atenção farmacêutica na avaliação da técnica inalatória, aderência ao tratamento, controle clínico e qualidade de vida em portadores de asma e doença pulmonar obstrutiva crônica (DPOC)

“…O dispositivo (inalador dosimetrado/nebulímetro), O paciente foi classificado como aderente quando utilizou de 80 a 120% da dose prescrita 27,[31][32][33] . O índice de aderência resulta da divisão do número de doses usadas pelo total de doses prescritas em um determinado período, multiplicado por 100.…”