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[The approach to pulmonary ventilation change]
A Pérez-Poza1, F Escolar-Castellón, A Martínez-Berganza
1Area de Salud de Tudela, Navarra.
Objective:
To study the epidemiological behaviour of pulmonary diseases with ventilation disorder to assess their development within primary care.
Design:
Prospective study.
Setting:
Primary care. Tudela West Health Centre (Navarra).
Participants:
166 patients with one of the classic patterns of disorder found by Spirometry were chosen and monitored for a year.
Results:
72.3% were male with an average age of 63.2. 7.8% were new cases. 62.0% were smokers/ex-smokers. 80.1% had another associated pathology. An overall decrease in ventilatory function values was noted: this was more pronounced in cases of recurrence. 2.08 medicines were used, with smaller FEV1 [correction of FVE1]-fraction of ventricular ejection-leading to more medicines, of which the beta-adrenergics were the most common. 25.3% showed poor therapeutic compliance, deteriorating with age. 55% used inhalers badly. The number of medicines increased with decompensation. There were on average 3.5 consultations per year at the health centre.
Conclusions:
Tudela's findings are similar to those in other areas. There is poor therapeutic compliance among people of geriatric age. The burden of control falls on primary care.