HOME NEBULIZED THERAPY FOR PATIENTS WITH COPD - PATIENT COMPLIANCE WITH TREATMENT AND ITS RELATION TO QUALITY-OF-LIFE

Study objectives: To assess compliance with home nebulized therapy in patients with COPD. Design: Patients' home nebulizers were replaced wi th nebulizers that recorded the date and time of each treatment over a period of 4 weeks. Poor compliance was defined as taking < 70% of the prescribed dose (or <60% for those prescribed treatments five or more times daily). Setting: Patients were seen at the hospital COPD outpat ient clinic. The compliance data obtained were recorded while they wer e at home. Patients: Ninety-three patients aged 44 to 76 years (mean, 64.9 years) were recruited from the hospital nebulizer database, Measu rements: Patients completed a self-reported quality of life scale, the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), both before (SGRQ1) an d after (SGRQ2) the l-week study period to look at whether duality of life was either predictive of or subsequent to level of compliance. Re sults: Data were obtained from 82 patients. Mean compliance was 57% (r ange, 0 to 124%). Thirty-six (44%) patients were compliant and 46 (56% ) were poor ly compliant. There was no difference between the two grou ps in age or sex distribution. Compliance was negatively correlated wi th the total score on the SGRQ2 (p=0.03), Conclusion: The study shows that levels of compliance with nebulized therapy are low in a large pr oportion of patients with COPD and that patients with low levels of co mpliance report greater impairment in their quality of life.