Tu-Son Nguyen,1,2 Thi Lien Huong Nguyen,1 Thi Thuy Van Pham,1 Susan Hua,2 Quy Chau Ngo,3 Shu Chuen Li2 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Hanoi University of Pharmacy, Hanoi, Vietnam; 2School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia; 3Respiratory Centre, Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi, Vietnam Background: Incorrect use of inhalers is very common and subsequently leads to poor control of COPD. Among health care providers, pharmacists are in the best position to educate patients about the correct use of inhaler devices. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of pharmacist-led training on the improvement of inhaler technique for COPD patients in Vietnam. Patients and methods: For this pre- and post-intervention study, standardized checklists of correct use of metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) and dry powder inhalers (DPIs) were used to evaluate the inhaler technique. A scoring system (maximum score =8) was applied before and after training to guarantee assessment uniformity among pharmacists. Three methods including “face-to-face training”, “teach-back” and “technique reminder label” were used. After the baseline evaluation (T0), the inhaler technique was reassessed after 1 month (T1), 3 months (T2), 6 months (T3) and 12 months (T4). Results: A total of 211 COPD patients participated in the study. Before the training, a high rate of errors was recorded. After the training, the percentage of patients using MDIs and DPIs perfectly increased significantly (p
PDF full text from Publisher 
Full Text Finder