[Medication practice and personal knowledge of the disease among patients with obstructive lung disease]

250 patients with obstructive lung disease who had attended an out-patient clinic were assessed after reporting on individual medication practices and their personal knowledge of the disease. 56% of the patients reported using two types of asthma medicine. The use of three, four, and five or more antasthmatica was reported by 26%, 9% and 5%, respectively. 90% had been prescribed an inhalation corticosteroid. Of these, one in five reported using it only when required, whereas in the age group 18-34 years the corresponding figure was one in three (34%). Regardless of what medication the patients were using, 20% reported that they often forgot to take it, 20% that they stopped taking it when their asthma improved, and 38% that they did not think about what time of the day they took their medicine. These practices of taking medication occurred more frequently in the young than in older patients. Practices did not vary with either a person's sex, duration of disease, or the patient's personal assessment of the seriousness of the disease. Patients with a higher level of education seemed to have greater knowledge of their disease than those with only secondary education, as was also the case with nonsmokers compared to smokers.