The Effect of Educational Intervention on Inhaler Technique of Patients in Asian Countries: A Systematic Review

Background: Inhalation therapy is the main line of treatment for the management of various respiratory diseases due to localized delivery and rapid onset of action. Incorrect inhaler technique is very common and subsequently leads to poor disease management. Pharmacist can have a positive impact on patient’s education about proper inhaler technique that can lead to a significant improvement of asthma and COPD management.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of pharmacist education program on inhaler technique of asthmatic and COPD patients in South Asian countries. The outcome regarding inhalation technique was reviewed and summarized.

Methodology: The outcome regarding inhalation technique was reviewed and summarized. For this systematic review, basic electronic academic databases (Scopus, Science Direct, ProQuest, Web of Science and PubMed) were used for the search, along with a manual search on Google Scholar. This systematic review was conducted by following the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)” guidelines. Moreover, utilizing the framework of the PECO-S (Population Exposure Comparison Outcome Study design), various observational studies were recruited for this review. The ZEE tool was utilized to minimize the risk of bias among extracted cross-sectional studies. Inclusion criteria included studies on inhaler using patients of all ages from South Asian countries along with the influence of educational intervention outcomes.

Results: Out of 2191 studies, 24 studies meeting the inclusion criteria were included in the current review. All of the included studies were about pharmacist intervention on inhaler technique in South Asian countries.

Conclusion: The systematic literature review summarizes the impact of educational intervention provided to inhaler using patients from South Asian countries. It was assessed that patient education and counselling produced improvement in inhalation technique of various devices especially metered dose inhalers. The primary outcome of most the studies was the improvement in inhaler technique assessment and enhanced quality of life. Therefore, inhaler technique education to patients should be made compulsory by the Health-care authorities to enhance compliance and effectiveness of inhalational therapy by avoiding irrational use of inhalers.