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.