Asthma and COPD patient characteristics and illness perceptions related to inhaler technique

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Background: Inhaler medication is the cornerstone of treatments for patients with asthma and COPD. Unfortunately 70 to 80% of the patients have poor inhaler technique which leads to poor disease control, high burden of disease and high health care costs. Most studies focus on patients with poor inhaler technique in this study we want to evaluate patients with good inhaler technique and see what the can learn from them. Aim: Evaluate patient characteristics and illness perceptions of patients with correct inhaler technique Method: First we analysed a real-life database with 9676 primary care patients (49% asthma, 20% COPD, 9% overlap and other/unclear (22%) who have had their inhaler technique checked. We compared characteristics of patients with correct inhaler technique with patients with poor inhaler technique. Second we interviewed 12 patients and discussed their inhaler medication use and tools or information used to train inhaler technique. Finally we have performed a questionnaire study in primary care patients to the evaluates self-efficacy and illness perceptions. Results: patients with proper inhaler technique are somewhat younger (mean age: good 51 years, poor 54 years) and more likely to be men (good: 60% men, poor 56% men). The interviews showed that patients have found ways to incorporate their medication use in their daily lives and are well informed about their disease. No differences were found in self-efficacy. However, remarkably COPD patients with poor technique have poor knowledge about their COPD (see figure 1). Conclusion: We have learnt from patients with correct inhaler technique that inhaler technique is predomintly related with patients knowledge about their disease.