Plaza V, et al. - Herein, researchers analyzed the available evidence on the inhaler technique (IT) proficiency of health care professionals (HCPs) in using pressurized metered dose (pMDI) and dry powder (DPI) inhalers, since inefficient IT compromises the optimal delivery of medication. They found that concerning the proper use of inhalers, the knowledge of health care professionals was inadequate, which in turn, prevent these professionals from being able to adequately assess and teach proper inhalation techniques to their patients.

• Using the pre-defined selection criteria, researchers selected the studies published between 1975 and 2014 that directly assessed the IT skills of HCPs.

• They obtained data from 55 studies involving 6,304 HCPs who performed 9,996 tests to demonstrate their IT proficiency.
• Overall, in 15.5% of cases (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 12-19.3), IT was considered correct, over time decrease from 20.5% (95% CI, 14.9-26.8) from the early period (defined as 1975-1995) to 10.8% (95% CI, 7.3-14.8) during the late period (1996-2014) was also noted.
• The following were reported to be the most common errors in the use of pMDIs: not breathing out completely before inhalation (75%; 95% CI, 56-90), lack of coordination (64%; 95% CI, 29-92), and post-inhalation breath-hold (63%; 95% CI, 52-72).
• Additionally, deficient preparation (89%; 95% CI, 82-95), not breathing out completely before inhalation (79%; 95% CI, 68-87), and no breath-hold (76%; 95% CI, 67-84) were recognized as the most common errors using DPT.