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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Drugs Outcomes Research and Policies
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1538283
Effective inhaler technique education is achievable -assessment and comparison of five inhaler devices errors
Provisionally accepted
Monika Marko1Magdalena Klimczak2
Marharyta Sobczak1
Maciej Wojakiewicz3Tomasz Dębowski3Andrzej Emeryk4,5
Rafał Pawliczak1*- 1Department of Immunopathology, Faculty of Medicine, Division of Biomedical Science, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland
- 2Department of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Lung Diseases Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Lodz, Łódź, Poland
- 3Medical Department, Chiesi Poland Sp. z o.o., Warsaw, Poland
- 4Department of Pulmonary Diseases and Children Rheumatology, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- 5Department of Pediatrics Pulmonology and Rheumatology, Pediatrics University Hospital in Lublin, Lublin, Poland
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Objective: The study is based on a respiratory educational program aimed at training medical personnel to use inhalers correctly and educating patients on improving their inhalation skills.Methods: Adult patients with asthma were divided into groups according to the inhaler: Ellipta, Diskus, Cyclohaler, Pressurized metered-dose inhaler (pMDI), and Turbuhaler. Patients were assessed for inhalation skills and then educated by previously trained nurses. The results were collected in forms allowing the evaluation of the number of critical and other errors made by patients.Results: The number of errors during inhalers use decreased at subsequent visits after education. The number of critical errors was lower than other errors for each device before and after education. Statistically significant differences in the inhalation technique assessment (before education, visit 1, and visit 2) were shown for Cyclohaler and pMDI (p<0.0001), Turbuhaler (p=0.0014), Diskus (p=0.0025) and Ellipta (p=0.0091).Conclusions: Before education, the least technical difficulties were observed for the Cyclohaler, while in the Ellipta group, patients made the most errors. Education resulted in equalizing the level of correctness of inhalation, which was similarly high for each type of device. This means that after education, all inhalers have similar difficulty levels in performing the correct inhalation technique. However, achieved improvement may be influenced by other factors such as practice effects or confounding variables due to real-life nature of the study.
Keywords: Asthma, devices, Education, Errors, inhalation therapy, inhaler, technique
Received: 02 Dec 2024; Accepted: 08 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Marko, Klimczak, Sobczak, Wojakiewicz, Dębowski, Emeryk and Pawliczak. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rafał Pawliczak, Department of Immunopathology, Faculty of Medicine, Division of Biomedical Science, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.