Čes. slov. farm. 2022, 71(2):43-56 | DOI: 10.5817/CSF2022-2-43

Community pharmacists and proper administration of inhaled medications

Lucia Masaryková^*, Tomáš Tesař, Ľubica Lehocká, Zuzana Koblišková, Michaela Čellárová

Katedra organizácie a riadenia farmácie, Farmaceutická fakulta Univerzity Komenského, Bratislava, SR

Inhaled medications are considered a preferred dosage form of medicine to treat respiratory diseases, such as bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), when bronchodilators or, more precisely, controlled drugs for treatment are used. The main objective of our research was to find out community pharmacists' general knowledge of particular inhalation systems (IS) dispensed in pharmacies. All data necessary for the evaluation have been obtained by an anonymous survey questionnaire carried out between September 2020 and January 2021, which was done both in printed form and online. The questionnaire was self-construction, anonymous, consisting of sociodemographic data (age, gender, residence address - region) and 22 research questions. Both the administration of bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids were monitored in the survey. A total of 115 respondents participated in the survey, 86 females (75%) and 29 males (25%). Most of the respondents, 45 (39%), were aged between 23 and 29. The data show that 62 respondents (53.91%) encounter inhaler dispensing several times a day, with the prevalence of aerosol inhalers (MDI), which was confirmed by 78 pharmacists (67.83%). Most of the time, pharmacists meet patients with bronchial asthma, 80 (69.57%), and bronchodilators are prescribed for therapy mainly, 74 (64.35%). In total, 60 respondents (52.17%) provide patients with information on proper administration of inhaled medicines at their request, and only 46 of the respondents (40%) do it without being asked. The survey outcomes show that community pharmacists have minimum knowledge of nebulizers and also of the use of inhalator attachments. The vast majority of participants, 90 (78.26%), say that since they graduated, they haven't attended any education courses aimed at proper administration of inhaled medications as part of their constant education. Up to 95 respondents (82.61%) are interested in IS mock-ups in a pharmacy, 103 pharmacists (89.97%) in information materials for their self-study, and 110 respondents (95.65%) in IS leaflets and brochures for patients. A positive finding of the survey is that the majority of the respondents, 101 (87.83%), are interested in further educating themselves to get knowledge of this matter in the future. Our survey outcomes show that our respondents' knowledge of inhalation systems (IS) is sufficient. Most of the pharmacists who participated in the survey can provide patients with basic information regarding the proper administration of inhaled medicines.

Keywords: community pharmacist; COPD; inhalation systems; administration; bronchial asthma

Grants and funding:

Výskum bol podporený prostredníctvom APVV-18-0425 "Entry and competition in regulated markets: evidence from Slovak pharmacy market".

Received: January 7, 2022; Accepted: February 15, 2022; Published: February 1, 2022  Show citation