Controller Inhalers: Overview of Devices, Instructions for Use, Errors, and Interventions to Improve Technique

Real-World Use of Inhaled COPD Medications: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) rely primarily on inhaled medications to control and treat symptoms. Although the medications delivered by inhaler devices are often quite efficacious when delivered to the lung, the real-world effectiveness of these inhaler devices often falls short. Barriers to effective inhaler use include inhaler misuse and cost-related nonadherence. Inhaler misuse can be reduced with appropriate education which leads to improved outcomes. Education can be provided in multiple settings by a wide array of clinicians and clinical team members including pharmacists, respiratory therapists, nurses, physicians, advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, and community health workers, among others. However, despite decades of research and existing effective strategies across settings and types of educators, overall not much progress has been made with respect to effective inhaler technique among populations of patients with COPD in nearly half a century. Similarly, cost-related nonadherence is a long-standing and critical barrier to effective control of COPD, with limited improvements, especially until very recently. This perspective reviews the current promising directions for inhaler-based therapies, ongoing challenges, and critical issues requiring urgent attention.

An aerosol inhalation monitor would improve the accuracy of checklist assessment in drug inhalation techniques

BACKGROUND

Checklists are usually employed to assess the inhalation techniques in patients, but partial techniques are difficult to evaluate visually. This study aimed to assess the checklist validity and an agreement between checklists and an aerosol inhalation monitor (AIM) assessments.

METHODS

This study used a checklist and an AIM to evaluate the participants' inhalation techniques with a pressurized metered-dose inhaler (MDI) and two dry powder inhalers (DPIs). The kappa (κ) coefficient, prevalence-adjusted and bias-adjusted κ (PABAK), sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were all calculated to determine the agreement between the checklist and AIM in an MDI and DPIs with different inhalation technique steps.

RESULTS

The checklist and AIM exhibited poor agreement in the MDI for actuation and inhalation time, and a moderate agreement for inspiratory flow. The fair agreement was observed in DPIs for inspiratory flow between the checklist and AIM. The steps of holding breath in MDI and DPIs were highly correlated between both assessments. The lowest accuracy evaluated with an AIM was found in the step of actuation and inhalation time in the MDI and in the inspiratory flow step in DPIs.

CONCLUSION

The checklist tended to overestimate the accuracy of critical techniques including the actuation and inhalation time in MDIs and the inspiratory flow in DPIs. Thus, the AIM device can be used as an objective auxiliary tool to assess and quantify the specific steps of inhalation technique for the users with MDI and DPIs.

Impact of Sex on Proper Use of Inhaler Devices in Asthma and COPD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Despite females being more often affected by asthma than males and the prevalence of COPD rising in females, conflicting evidence exists as to whether sex may modulate the correct inhaler technique. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of sex on the proper use of inhaler devices in asthma and COPD. A pairwise meta-analysis was performed on studies enrolling adult males and females with asthma or COPD and reporting data of patients making at least one error by inhaler device type (DPI, MDI, and SMI). The data of 6,571 patients with asthma or COPD were extracted from 12 studies. A moderate quality of evidence (GRADE +++) indicated that sex may influence the correct use of inhaler device in both asthma and COPD. The critical error rate was higher in females with asthma (OR 1.31, 95%CI 1.14−1.50) and COPD (OR 1.80, 95%CI 1.22−2.67) using DPI vs. males (p < 0.01). In addition, the use of SMI in COPD was associated with a greater rate of critical errors in females vs. males (OR 5.36, 95%CI 1.48−19.32; p < 0.05). No significant difference resulted for MDI. In conclusion, choosing the right inhaler device in agreement with sex may optimize the pharmacological treatment of asthma and COPD.

Clinic navigation and home visits to improve asthma care in low income adults with poorly controlled asthma: Before and during the pandemic

Asthma-related deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency visits are more numerous among low-income patients, yet management guidelines do not address this high-risk group's special needs. We recently demonstrated feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary evidence of effectiveness of two interventions to improve access to care, patient-provider communication, and asthma outcomes: 1) Clinic Intervention (CI): study staff facilitated patient preparations for office visits, attended visits, and afterwards confirmed patient understanding of physician recommendations, and 2) Home Visit (HV) by community health workers for care coordination and informing clinicians of home barriers to managing asthma. The current project, denominated "HAP3," combines these interventions for greater effectiveness, delivery of guideline-based asthma care, and asthma control for low-income patients recruited from 6 primary care and 3 asthma specialty practices. We assess whether patients of clinicians receiving guideline-relevant, real-time feedback on patient health and home status have better asthma outcomes. In a pragmatic factorial longitudinal trial, HAP3 enrolls 400 adults with uncontrolled asthma living in low-income urban neighborhoods. 100 participants will be randomized to each of four interventions: (1) CI, (2) CI with HVs, (3) CI and real-time feedback to asthma clinician of guideline-relevant elements of patients' current care, or (4) both (2) and (3). The outcomes are asthma control, quality of life, ED visits, hospitalizations, prednisone bursts, and intervention costs. The COVID-19 pandemic struck 6.5 months into recruitment. We describe study development, design, methodology, planned analysis, baseline findings and adaptions to achieve the original aims of improving patient-clinician communication and asthma outcomes despite the markedly changed pandemic environment.

The Inhaler Technique Questionnaire (InTeQ): Development and Validation of a Brief Patient-Reported Measure

There is a need for instruments designed for patients with asthma to self-report their performance of inhaling steps. We aimed to develop an accessible and easy-to-use patient-reported tool for inhaler technique assessment, which could also serve as a training and monitoring resource for any type of inhaler device, and to evaluate its feasibility, validity, and reliability in adults with asthma. The development was based on literature review and pilot testing with clinicians and patients. The Inhaler Technique Questionnaire (InTeQ) asks about the frequency of performing five steps when using inhalers (on a five-point Likert scale). We analyzed data from adults with persistent asthma (n = 361). We examined the measurement model using Mokken scaling analysis, construct validity by assessing hypotheses on expected discrimination among known groups, and reliability based on internal consistency and reproducibility. Means of the InTeQ items were in the range of 0.23–1.61, and coefficients of homogeneity were above the cutoff point, demonstrating the unidimensionality of the scale. Known groups’ global score differences were statistically significant between patients reporting having “Discussed in detail” or having “Not discussed/Only in general” the inhaler technique with their healthcare providers (p = 0.023). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.716, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.775. The InTeQ is a feasible, valid, and reliable instrument for self-reporting inhaler technique on any type of device.