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Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of COPD patients’ perspectives on self-treatment
BACKGROUND: Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of COPD with antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids has emerged as a promising strategy to reduce hospitalization rates, mortality and health costs. However, for reasons little understood, the effect of self-treatment, particularly when not part of...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5264444/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28122492 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12875-017-0582-8 |
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author | Laue, Johanna Melbye, Hasse Risør, Mette Bech |
author_facet | Laue, Johanna Melbye, Hasse Risør, Mette Bech |
author_sort | Laue, Johanna |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of COPD with antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids has emerged as a promising strategy to reduce hospitalization rates, mortality and health costs. However, for reasons little understood, the effect of self-treatment, particularly when not part of comprehensive self-management programs, remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to get insight into the patients’ perspective on self-treatment of acute exacerbations of COPD, focusing specifically on how patients decide for the right moment to start treatment with antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids, what they consider important when making this decision and aspects which might interfere with successful implementation. METHODS: We interviewed 19 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using qualitative semi-structured interviews, and applied thematic analysis for data analysis. RESULTS: Patients were well equipped with experiential knowledge to recognize and promptly respond to worsening COPD symptoms. Worries regarding potential adverse effects of antibiotics and oral corticosteroids played an important role in the decision to start treatment and could result in hesitation to start treatment. Although self-treatment represented a practical and appreciated option for some patients with predictable symptom patterns and treatment effect, all patients favoured assistance from a medical professional when their perceived competence reached its limits. However, a feeling of obligation to succeed with self-treatment or distrust in their doctors or the health care system could keep patients from timely help seeking. CONCLUSION: COPD patients regard self-treatment of exacerbations with antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids as a valuable alternative. How they engage in self-treatment depends on their concerns regarding the medications’ adverse effects as well as on their understanding of and preferences for self-treatment as a means of health care. Caregivers should address these perspectives in a collaborative approach when offering COPD patients the opportunity for self-treatment of exacerbations. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12875-017-0582-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5264444 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-52644442017-01-30 Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of COPD patients’ perspectives on self-treatment Laue, Johanna Melbye, Hasse Risør, Mette Bech BMC Fam Pract Research Article BACKGROUND: Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of COPD with antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids has emerged as a promising strategy to reduce hospitalization rates, mortality and health costs. However, for reasons little understood, the effect of self-treatment, particularly when not part of comprehensive self-management programs, remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to get insight into the patients’ perspective on self-treatment of acute exacerbations of COPD, focusing specifically on how patients decide for the right moment to start treatment with antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids, what they consider important when making this decision and aspects which might interfere with successful implementation. METHODS: We interviewed 19 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using qualitative semi-structured interviews, and applied thematic analysis for data analysis. RESULTS: Patients were well equipped with experiential knowledge to recognize and promptly respond to worsening COPD symptoms. Worries regarding potential adverse effects of antibiotics and oral corticosteroids played an important role in the decision to start treatment and could result in hesitation to start treatment. Although self-treatment represented a practical and appreciated option for some patients with predictable symptom patterns and treatment effect, all patients favoured assistance from a medical professional when their perceived competence reached its limits. However, a feeling of obligation to succeed with self-treatment or distrust in their doctors or the health care system could keep patients from timely help seeking. CONCLUSION: COPD patients regard self-treatment of exacerbations with antibiotics and/or oral corticosteroids as a valuable alternative. How they engage in self-treatment depends on their concerns regarding the medications’ adverse effects as well as on their understanding of and preferences for self-treatment as a means of health care. Caregivers should address these perspectives in a collaborative approach when offering COPD patients the opportunity for self-treatment of exacerbations. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12875-017-0582-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2017-01-25 /pmc/articles/PMC5264444/ /pubmed/28122492 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12875-017-0582-8 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Laue, Johanna Melbye, Hasse Risør, Mette Bech Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of COPD patients’ perspectives on self-treatment |
title | Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of COPD patients’ perspectives on self-treatment |
title_full | Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of COPD patients’ perspectives on self-treatment |
title_fullStr | Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of COPD patients’ perspectives on self-treatment |
title_full_unstemmed | Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of COPD patients’ perspectives on self-treatment |
title_short | Self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of COPD patients’ perspectives on self-treatment |
title_sort | self-treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires more than symptom recognition – a qualitative study of copd patients’ perspectives on self-treatment |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5264444/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28122492 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12875-017-0582-8 |
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