Study of the effect of pharmacist-led education on inhaler technique in patients with asthma and COPD; and evaluation of its possible explanatory factors

Introduction: Several studies indicate improper inhaler technique in asthma and COPD patients. Owing to their high knowledge on medicines, pharmacists can play an important role to teach correct inhaler technique to these patients and to manage their medication therapy. This investigation was designed to determine the impact of pharmacist-led education on inhaler technique of asthmatic and COPD patients and to evaluate its explanatory factors. Method: A single arm pre-post study was designed. A non-probability sampling was used in which eligible adult patients receiving at least one metered dose inhaler (MDI) or dry powder inhaler (DPI) device, and referring to the outpatient clinic of the Shahid Labbafinejad Hospital between Fall 2015 to Summer 2016 were entered into the study. Baseline inhaler technique was checked for each patient. Then, patients received training about correct inhaler technique. Inhaler technique was rechecked after one month. Demographic, medical and medication history were also recorded. Data were analyzed using the SPSS (version, 22.0) software. Results: 40 patients (21 male, 19 female) with mean±sd age of 61.6±10.6 years were enrolled in the study. Findings revealed that the ratio of the number of correct steps of inhaler technique to the total relevant steps in post-education phase (0.83±0.11) was significantly higher (p= 0.0001) than those of the pre-education phase (0.60±0.14). Also, there was a significant indirect relationship between morbidity and inhaler technique in pre- (p=0.03, r=-0.35) and post-education (p= 0.02, r=-0.38) phases. None of the demographic, medical and medication features had significant relationship with the inhaler technique. Conclusion: Our results show that pharmacist-led educational interventions can improve inhaler technique independently, and can eventually lead to morbidity reduction. Therefore, implementation of organized educational programs and drug therapy follow up by pharmacists with the aim of improving medication therapy and quality of life of the patients are recommended.

کلیدواژه ها:

Asthma ، Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ، Inhaler Technique ، Morbidity ، education