Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease management among primary healthcare physicians

The aim of this study was to evaluate the dissemination of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) management guidelines among primary healthcare physicians in Greece. One hundred and five of 120 (87.5% response rate) completed a questionnaire about COPD morbidity and management. One in eight patients examined by a primary care physician suffered from COPD. Forty-eight physicians treated their COPD patients according to the pulmonologist's recommendations and 69 according to COPD management guidelines. All the physicians encouraged and supported their COPD patients in stopping smoking, but continuous abstinence was low. The most commonly prescribed drugs were beta 2-agonist inhalers (14.8%), corticosteroid inhalers (13.47%), antibiotics (12.6%) and influenza vaccines (12.6%). The most commonly prescribed antibiotics were cephalosporins (33.72%), macrolides (27.71%) and amoxycillin plus clavulanic acid (25.3%). According to the present study, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease management among primary healthcare physicians was not in total accordance with current guidelines. Better dissemination of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease guidelines among specialists and primary healthcare physicians will hopefully make chronic obstructive pulmonary disease management in outpatients optimal.