Knowledge of asthma is associated with inhalation technique in elderly patients with asthma

Abstract

Background: The asthma prevalence of elderly individuals is increasing with aging society worldwide. Elderly asthma is more susceptible to asthma morbidity and mortality than younger adults and children. Controlling asthma and preventing asthma death requires attention to self-management, including correct knowledge of asthma and consistent use of ICS with proper technique. Aims: To examine self-management behaviors, including the knowledge of asthma and ICS treatment, inhaler technique (IT), and to evaluate their association with clinical variables in elderly asthma. Methods: We scored the knowledge and IT using questionnaire and checklist in seventy-eight elderly asthma (mean 73.9 years of age). The correlations with these scores and clinical evaluation (pulmonary function, exhaled nitric oxide, cognitive function, depression status, asthma control) were analyzed. Results: The mean score of the knowledge was 69.0/100. The percentage of patients who answered correct mostly, “What kind of sickness is asthma?” :53.6%, “The name and effect of inhaler which you use”: only 14.5%. However, “Times to use the inhaler”: 73.0%, “Necessity of consistent inhaler use”: 93.0%, showed high percentage of correct answered. The mean score of IT were 77.2/100 (DPI) and 69.4/100 (pMDI). Especially, we found the low percentage of performed correctly “expiration before inhalation” and “breath hold after inhalation” showed each 50%. Multivariate analysis showed significant association between the asthma knowledge score and the ITscore (p=0.005). Conclusion: The study indicates that asthma education is important for performing proper inhalation technique in patients with elderly asthma.