1. Adherence and beliefs to medication/inhalers in patients with COPD
Maria Kampouraki; General Practitioner Faculty of Medicine Crete
Ioannis Poulorinakis; General practitioner Agia Varvara Primary Care Practice
Dr.Ioanna Tsiligianni; General Practitioner Faculty of Medicine Crete

2. Clinical Questions
Do patients with COPD have an adequate adherence to their therapy for inhalers and other medications?
Is there any difference between adherence to inhalers and other medications?
Is adherence influenced by their beliefs?
Do they do crucial mistakes regarding the inhalers’ use?
What kind of mistakes do they do?

3. Unlock project cross sectional study
thirty primary care practices across Greece
593 (124 with asthma and 469 with COPD)
16 questionnaires about personal medical history, symptomatology, quality of life etc
Qualitative(interview)-quantitative(MARS,TAI,BMQ)
The project was granted by IPCRG

4. Results

9. Results
Medications
66% (n=309) of COPD patients prefer taking pills than use inhalers(interview)
The average number of pills that take per day is 3(n=286,61% as recorded in BMQ)
took their medication the last week for 6.8 days(BMQ)
have difficulty in remembering all dosages (n=263,56.4% BMQ)
had a good opinion about effectiveness (n=441,94.6% BMQ questionnaire)
They prefer a combined monotherapy rather than take medications three times a day(n=345,73.5%)(interview)
Inhalers
presented not to be careless about taking their inhaler (n=455,97.3% MARS questionnaire)
26%(n=122) use nebulizers
Many of them interrupt the use of their inhaler when they feel better(n=164,34.9% MARS questionnaire)
Most of them don’t know the proper dose (n=286,61% TAI questionnaire)
do crucial mistakes in utilization of their inhaler(n=365,78% TAI questionnaire)

10. Results
Visit a respiratory specialist only once every two years(n=367,78.2%)(interview)
The physician that prescribe them their ordinary medications is not the one that established the diagnosis(n=389,82.9%)
Neither a physician nor a pharmacist repeat the demonstration of the proper inhalers’ use(n=412,87.8%)
Many patients don’t believe is necessary to be estimated often by a pulmonary specialist(n=234,49.8%)

11. Results
11%(n=52) stopped the use of their inhalers the last six months without their physicians’ permission(MARS)
Regarding GOLD categorization only 32%(n=150) follow the proper therapy
A and B category take ICS)-A(23%) B (48%) respectively
They consider that the demonstration of the inhalers’ use by a non-physician(nurse, pharmacist etc) is more understandable(n=289,61.6%)(interview)

17. Conclusions
General practitioners should be aware of the proper use of inhalers
demonstrate repeatedly the inhaler technique
investigate patients’ beliefs and opinions about medication
explore if they take them constantly