EVALUATION OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PROPER INHALER TECHNIQUE AND ANXIETY IN CHEST DISEASES OUTPATIENT CLINIC PATIENTS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A PROSPECTIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between inhaler use skills and general anxiety or coronavirus anxiety scores in patients with respiratory diseases. Material and Method: Inhaler techniques of 70 asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients were evaluated by three clinical pharmacists. A pulmonologist assessed the patients' anxiety scores using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) and Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS). We used IBM SPSS 25.0 as a software program for related statistical analysis Result and Discussion: Proper inhaler technique wasn’t found to be associated with CAS score, age, comorbidity, inhaler type. HAM-A stage (p=0.096) and educational status (p=0.074) were not found as statistically significant in affecting the proper inhaler technique. A weak correlation was found between age and CAS score (r=-0.278, p=0.02). Asthma patients have a higher rate of coronavirus anxiety than COPD patients (p=0.036). Female patients had higher HAM-A (p=0,037) and CAS scores (p=0,002) than male patients. There was a moderate correlation between HAM-A and CAS scores (r=0.407, p<0.001). The correlation between HAM-A and inhaler use skills scores were not found in statistical significance (r=-0.208, p=0.083). In conclusion, increase of CAS score wasn’t found to be associated with proper inhaler technique. HAM-A score was found to affect proper inhaler technique negatively, but these results are not significant.