Use of metered dose inhalers in the hospital setting

Metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) have become a first-in-class therapeutic strategy for the management of respiratory diseases, mainly COPD and asthma, as they have advantages such as lower systemic effects, easy portability, accurate dosing and rapid onset of therapy.
asthma, as they have advantages such as lower systemic effects, easy portability, accurate dosing and rapid therapeutic onset. It has been determined that the use of these elements is not always performed in the most appropriate way by patients, since multiple factors such as age, educational level, grip strength and mental state among others contribute to the inadequate use of MDIs. Even health care personnel are unfamiliar with the technique and the strategies used to teach the patient are not the most appropriate, sometimes due to lack of time or because a specific program has not been established for this purpose.
Taking into account that the number of patients with COPD and asthma is increasing and that the adequate management of these diseases includes pharmacological treatment with MDI, and that this favors the quality of life of users with these pathologies, reduces costs due to fewer exacerbations and emergency department visits, the authors of this project intend to establish how patients with COPD and asthma hospitalized at the Hospital Universitario Mayor in the city of Bogotá use metered dose inhalers and what are the factors associated with the adequate or inadequate use of the inhalers prescribed to them. For its execution, a structured survey will be made to the patients and an evaluation through observation of how they are using MDIs, to continue analyzing the aspects related to the correct or incorrect application of these drugs through correlation of the variables determined for such purpose.