RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Asthma is a potentially serious chronic respiratory disease impacting patients quality of life. Satisfactory control requires proper use of inhaled devices. This study assesses general medical residents and pharmacy students knowledge about proper use of inhaled asthma devices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We evaluated knowledge of 43 general practice students and 43 pharmacy students in Lille for three inhaler devices (metered-dose inhaler, Turbuhaler® and Diskus®) during individual interviews. Students were assessed on 8 proper use criterias for each device. RESULTS: General practice and pharmacy students are unfamiliar with proper use of inhaler devices. However, pharmacy students get better average scores than general practice students for all devices included in this study: 6.3/8 respected criterias against 5/8 for metered-dose inhaler; 5.3/8 against 3.2/8 for Turbuhaler®; and 6/8 against 4.3/8 for Diskus®. Pharmacy students more frequently perform a demonstration of proper use to patients when a device is first prescribed or when a prescription is renewed; general practice students more frequently ask patients themselves to perform a demonstration of proper use. CONCLUSION: Introducing trainings workshops for inhaler devices to pharmacy and general practice students appears appropriate in order to promote therapeutic patient education, to increase asthma control and better patients life quality.
