Abuzar Abdulwahab Osman¹, Ehab Kamal Ahmed Sogier², Ibraheem Abdulrahman Alaqeel³* and Mohammed Salamah Alhomaide³

¹Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, University of Hail, Hail, KSA
²Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Hail, KSA
³Student of 4^th Year, College of Medicine, University of Hail, Hail, KSA

*Corresponding Author: Ibraheem Abdulrahman Alaqeel, Student of 4th Year, College of Medicine, University of Hail, Hail, KSA.

Received: June 20, 2023; Published: July 20, 2023

Abstract

Background: Asthma affects more than 2 million Saudis with the recent studies suggesting that the majority of those asthmatic patients have uncontrolled asthma with their quality of life being adversely impacted (19). When asthmatic patients get involved in the management of their disease they would achieve good health outcomes. So, it is fundamental to counsel asthmatic patients in community pharmacy to maximise the chances of better patient involvement and asthma control.

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the quality and frequency of counseling provided in community by the community pharmacist when dispensing different asthma inhaler devices.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study via direct community pharmacist interviewing regarding their practice counselling and advising asthmatic patient in community pharmacy. A study was conducted in Hail region over 2 months (February and March) in 2023. A total of 100 community pharmacies were in this study, the total of pharmacies in Hail governorate is 250-300. The asthmatic drugs the study was on (Long-Acting Beta Agonist Turbuhaler Symbicort, Inhaled corticosteroid Discus Seretide and Bronchodilator Metered Dose Inhaler Ventolin). The data were entered and processed using version 23 of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).

Results: Despite 93% of participating” mention the total number of the participants in the study stated that they provide counseling for asthmatic patients upon dispensing different asthma medications, None of them covered properly the main areas of counseling which are the use of medactions (holding technique, shaking the bottle before using the drug, set the correct dosage and rotate the bottom or the tab of the bottle until hearing the “click” sound etc…). Seven percent did not provide counseling because of workflow and time constrain. Twenty percent offer counseling “sometime”, 58% provide it “usually”, while 15% “rarely”. Only 3 types of advices were offered, (a) avoid triggering factors, (b) avoid pain killers, and (c) the way of proper inhaler device technique. Although the pharmacists stated that they counsel asthmatic patient on the correct way of handling the asthma inhalers, 50% (14/28) of the pharmacists interviewed on the metered dose inhaler did not know the correct technique of metered dose inhalers, 58% and 60% didn’t know the proper technique of diskus and turbuhaler respectively. Twenty-two percent of the pharmacists perceived that teaching asthmatic patients the correct inhalation technique is the responsibility of physician who prescribes the device and not the community pharmacists.

Conclusion and Recommendations: This survey revealed that asthmatic patients did not receive adequate counseling regarding the technique, asthma control, asthma action plan, rescue and maintenance therapy. Continuous pharmacist educational program is recommended to tackle the gap and activate the pharmacist role for optimizing asthma care.

 Keywords: Counselling Asthmatic Patient; Community Pharmacists; Hail; KSA

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Citation

Citation: Ibraheem Abdulrahman Alaqeel., et al. “Evaluation of the Quality and Frequency of Counseling Provided for Asthma Patients in Community Pharmacies in Hail, KSA”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 7.8 (2023): 158-163.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Ibraheem Abdulrahman Alaqeel., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.