Dg. Peckham et al., IMPROVEMENT IN PATIENT COMPLIANCE WITH LONG-TERM OXYGEN-THERAPY FOLLOWING FORMAL ASSESSMENT WITH TRAINING, Respiratory medicine, 92(10), 1998, pp. 1203-1206
Citations number
12
Categorie Soggetti
Respiratory System","Cardiac & Cardiovascular System
In the Department of Respiratory Medicine, North Staffordshire Hospita
l, patients fulfilling the Department of Health criteria for long-term
oxygen therapy (LTOT) attend a practical teaching session on the use
of their oxygen concentrator before commencing therapy. In the present
study, we have audited the prescribing of LTOT in all patients in thr
ee health districts in the North West Midlands reviewed between June 1
992 and July 1994. They were split into two groups. The first had the
assessment and training programme in the department. Patients in the c
ontrol group had been prescribed LTOT from outside the department with
out any formal training. In both groups of patients information was co
llated 6 months after starting LTOT by means of a questionnaire assess
ing patients', understanding of both their need for oxygen and their d
isease process, the dangers of oxygen therapy and present smoking habi
t. Objective information about the usage of each concentrator was obta
ined from engineer reports. Thirty-six patients (eight from the traine
d group and 28 controls) died before evaluation at 6 months. Forty-fiv
e patients (29 male, mean age 71 years) received training and 41 contr
ol patients (24 male, mean age 72 years) were evaluated. Thirty-seven
(82%) patients who had received formal training were using their conce
ntrator for greater than 15 h compared with only 18 (44%) of the contr
ols (P=0.0002). Forty-two (93%) patients who had received training und
erstood why they were using LTOT compared with only 17 (41%) in the co
ntrol group (P=0.00001). Although both groups had a similar understand
ing of the dangers of smoking while on oxygen therapy, six (15%) of th
e control group were smoking as compared to only one (2%) of the train
ed group (P=0.038). One of the control patients had received significa
nt facial burns as a direct result of smoking while on oxygen. Further
efforts are required to ensure that all patients prescribed LTOT shou
ld have a formal respiratory assessment as well as training to improve
compliance and to obtain maximal benefits from such therapy.