Abstract

A COMMUNITY BASED INTERVENTIONAL STUDY TO ASSESS ADHERENCE OF ASTHMA INHALER IN DAKSHINA KANNADA

Viresh K. Chandur, Nagaratna S. Moger*, Satish S. and A. R. Shabaraya

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Abstract

Asthma is mainly treated with inhaled medications and the effectiveness of inhaler treatment depends on various factors, but primarily on proper inhaler technique and adherence to therapy. The TAI questionnaire can identify nonadherence and assess inhaler use barriers. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of pharmacist intervention on inhaler adherence in patients with asthma. A total of 151 participants, aged 18 and above using inhalers were included in the study. From this, 106 non-adherent subjects were randomly allocated to control and intervention group, with 53 in each. Subject’s adherence was evaluated with validated tool such as Test of Adherence to Inhalers (TAI) and Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) at baseline and after 3 months. The intervention group received verbal counselling, inhaler technique demonstration and PIL and control group received no education. The intervention group significantly improved in all areas compared to control group, notably reducing inhaler forgetfulness (4.12 vs 3.81, p < 0.001), and increasing belief-driven adherence (4.21 vs 2.64, p < 0.001). However, adherence during periods of anxiety or sadness remained relatively stable, with only a minor decrease (4.13 vs 4.20, p=0.23). The intervention group demonstrated significantly higher adherence (54.72% vs 7.55%) and mean TAI score (47.60vs. 35.92, p

Keywords: Asthma, inhaler, adherence, TAI questionnaire.