Incorrect Inhaler Technique Compromising Quality of Life of Asthmatic Patients

Abstract

Abstract:Objective: The inhalation route is widely used for the treatment of asthma. It Results: There was an inverse relationship between education level and incorrect inhaler technique (p<0.05). Education of inhaler usage provided by doctors was more effective as compared to education provided by nurses (p<0.038). There was no significant relationship between age, sex, duration of asthma, duration of inhaler use, frequency of inhaler use and incorrect inhaler technique. Conclusion: Quality of life of a large percentage of patients is compromised by incorrect inhaler use and education level of patients had significant relationship with incorrect inhaler technique.

Evaluation of inhaler technique, adherence to therapy and their effect on disease control among children with asthma using metered dose or dry powder inhalers

“…Age and gender are affective in both correct use and adherence to therapy. In accordance with our results, male or young patients are reported to use inhaler devices more correctly than female or older patients in previous studies conducted among adults [8,9]. One of the reasons of higher frequency of correct use and adherence to therapy in younger patients in our study may be that treatment is usually administered by parents for younger patients.…”

“…In studies conducted among adult asthmatics, 16.3-88% of patients were reported to use their inhaler devices with adequate performance [1,5,9,10]. The frequency of using MDI devices correctly was reported as 12-68% [1,10,23,24] and frequency of using DPI devices correctly was reported as 21.8-88% [1,25,26].…”

“…In previous studies, it has been shown that patients make significant errors when using inhaler devices [6,8,9]. Between 12% and 83.7% of patients are reported to use their inhaler devices with poor inhaler technique [1,5,9,10] and reported adherence rates for inhaler use are between 17.4% and 87.2% [11][12][13].…”

“…In previous studies, it has been shown that patients make significant errors when using inhaler devices [6,8,9]. Between 12% and 83.7% of patients are reported to use their inhaler devices with poor inhaler technique [1,5,9,10] and reported adherence rates for inhaler use are between 17.4% and 87.2% [11][12][13]. Inappropriate inhaler technique causes inability to control asthma symptoms, increases in morbidity and mortality, repeated references to hospital, increased cost of treatment and decrease in quality of life [2][3][4][5].…”

Technical Errors in Using Inhalers Among Patients With Asthma or Copd in Iraq

“…It is worth to mention that inhaler use technique is considered as dealing with a simple device, so it is often neglected in the general medical textbooks and literature (11) . A review of medical textbooks used in the education of physicians revealed that only two out of 40 books included a simple list of steps for proper pressurized metered-dose inhaler (pMDI) use (12) . As a result, 39-67% of nurses, doctors, and respiratory therapists were reported to be unable to adequately describe or perform critical steps for using inhalers (4) .…”