Knowledge Medical Compliance and Psychological Status of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) require adequate knowledge of the disease, good compliance to medical regimen and a stable psychology to cope with the chronic disease. However, studying about the knowledge, medical compliance and psychological status of COPD patients has not been reported in Taiwan. The purposes of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, medical compliance and psychological status of COPD patients and to analyze their influencing factors. Sixty COPD patients treated at a medical center were enrolled in the study. Scales of knowledge about COPD, compliance of medication and psychological status of COPD patients developed by the researchers were used to evaluate the patients. The results showed that knowledge about COPD of these patients was in medium range. Smoke-quitting and daily health promotion ranked the top two knowledge of the COPD patients, while knowledge about oxygen and drug therapy were the worst. The medical compliance of COPD patients was poor.The serum theophylline level of 38% of the patients were above or below therapeutic range. Estimated by drug compliance behavior questionnaire, it was found only 25.9﹪patients took the drugs strictly according to the instruction, 35﹪over the required dose, 64.2﹪under the required dose, 11.7﹪stopped taking the drug more than one occasion, and 8 .3﹪used herb drugs or other non-physician prescribed drugs. Eighteen percent of patients were smokers. The psychological status of these patients were in distressed, the lowest score(43.5﹪) laid in the item about symptoms-control, i.e, many patients had anxiety or depression. Gender and types of drugs influenced drug compliance while severity of pulmonary function impairment influenced psychological status of the COPD patients . The findings of this study will help medical personnels understand the knowledge, medical compliance and psychological status of COPD patients , and develope strategies to promote quality of care to them 。