Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted between January and March 2020 in
the allergy and pulmonology outpatient clinics of a tertiary chest
diseases hospital, where patients with asthma and COPD were regularly
followed up. Study was conducted in patients with a diagnosis of asthma
or COPD who had been followed for at least one year and whose treatment
was arranged as maintenance inhaler therapy were included in the study.
Patients who attended the scheduled follow-up visit with a
relative living in the same house
with the patient were included in the study if they volunteered to
participate.
In order to question the adherence of the patients who agreed to
participate in the study, the patient and his / her relative were taken
to different rooms and interviewed by Drs. T.T. and A.F. who are the
investigators of the study. The patients and their relatives living in
the same home with the patient were asked whether the patient used the
prescribed inhaler treatment regularly in face-to-face meetings.
The patients were asked about the usage patterns of their inhaler
treatments. They were asked how many days per week, how many times per
day, and how many puffs each time they take their controller inhaler in
the last 4 weeks. With the help of this inquiry, it was evaluated
whether the patients used the inhalers, which were prescribed by their
physicians and recommended to be used regularly, every day as
recommended. Those who were understood to use the drug regularly every
day on the appropriate schedule were recorded as adherents according to
their own statements. The relatives who live in the same house with the
patient independently were asked to make the same assessment and to
report whether the patient used inhaler treatment regularly. Patients
who were reported by their relatives to use their medication regularly
every day were accepted as adherents according to the statement of the
patient’s relative. If the patient’s relative reported that the patient
only uses his/her inhaler when it comes to mind or does not use it at
all then the patient was accepted as non-adherent according to
relative’s declaration . Age, gender, education level, smoking,
diagnosis and duration of disease were compared between adherents and
non-adherents.
Continuous variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD)
and categorical variables as numbers (percentages). The normal
distribution of continuous variables was evaluated by the Shapiro–Wilk
test, normality test, and Q-Q graphs. Any differences between groups
were evaluated using Student’s t-test for continuous variables and
chi-square test for categorical variables. All statistical tests were
two-sided, and a p-value <0.05 was considered statistically
significant. The analyses were carried out using SPSS (Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) version 22.
The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Keçiören Training and
Research Hospital Clinical Research Ethics Committee (08 January
2020/2012- KAEK-15/2040). Informed consent was received from all
participants.