THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND CLINICAL OUTCOME IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ASTHMA-COPD OVERLAP SYNDORME (AN INTERVENTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Basheti and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial with 53 intervention and 44 control asthma patients recruited from community pharmacies in Sydney, Australia. Inhalation technique was the primary focus of this study. The intervention pharmacists used the technique of verbal counselling augmented with a physical demonstration of proper inhaler technique using a placebo inhaler whereas control pharmacists provided usual care i.e. verbal counselling alone. Patient data were collected at baseline, one, two, three and six months post baseline. The study findings showed higher proprtions of proper inhaler technique in the intervention patients (Basheti, Reddel, Armour, & Bosnic-Anticevich, 2007). Then, study findings were subjected to further analysis. Interestingly, the inhalation technique scores showed upward trend over the first three months with monthly reinforcement then downward trend between threee and six months with no monthly reinforcement (Bosnic-Anticevich, S, Sinha, & Reddel, 2010). We make a good use of the information provided in this trial and emphasized on providing physical demonstration along with written and verbal counseling