Background: While initial education and regular evaluation of inhaler technique in patients are emphasized in the management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, health care professionals are not experienced in using inhalers. This study assessed whether internal medicine residents used common inhalers correctly and whether a single teaching session successfully improved their performance.
Methods: We evaluated 142 internal medicine residents from six university hospitals in Korea for their techniques with three different inhaler devices: a metered dose inhaler (MDI), Diskus, and Turbuhaler. We assessed whether participants completed each step in using the three inhalers and classified overall performance as good, adequate, or inadequate for each inhaler type. To estimate the effect of a single teaching session, reassessment was performed 2 months after education.
Results: Performance grade was inadequate for 50.7% of participants with a MDI, 43.0% for Diskus, and 51.4% for Turbuhaler. An early year of residency was associated significantly with inappropriate technique for Diskus (p = 0.003), but not for MDI and Turbuhaler. After a single teaching session, overall skills improved significantly for all three inhalers. The proportion of subjects with good or adequate skill changed notably from 39.7% to 83.8% for MDI (p = 0.001), from 50.0% to 86.8% for Diskus (p = 0.001), and from 44.1% to 88.2% for Turbuhaler (p = 0.001).
Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that a high proportion of internal medicine residents cannot use inhalers correctly and just a single teaching can effectively enhance their inhaler technique.