Education for Health, Warwick, UK.
Respiratory Department, University Hospitals of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
NPJ Prim Care Respir Med. 2016 Nov 3;26:16081. doi: 10.1038/npjpcrm.2016.81.
In many countries, short-acting β-agonist inhalers have traditionally been coloured blue. This inhaled therapy has also conventionally been known as a 'reliever' by patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs), in comparison with 'preventer' medications (inhaled steroids). With the rapidly changing market in inhaled therapy for COPD and asthma and growing numbers of devices, there has been some concern that the erosion of traditional colour conventions is leading to patients (and HCPs) becoming confused about the role of different therapies. In order to assess whether there was concern over the perceived changing colour conventions, the UK Inhaler Group carried out a large online survey of patients and HCPs. The aim was to determine how patients and HCPS identify and describe inhaled drugs, and how this might impact on use of medicines and safety. The results of the survey highlighted the importance of the term 'blue inhaler' for patients with only 11.3% never referring to the colour when referring to their inhaler. For HCPs, 95% felt colour conventions were important when referring to reliever medication. In addition, HCPs appear to refer to inhalers mainly by colour when talking to patients. Our conclusions were that the concept of a 'blue inhaler' remains important to patients and healthcare professionals. These results add to the debate about the need to formalise the colour coding of inhaled therapies, in particular using the colour blue for inhalers for rapid relief of symptoms, as this convention may be an important measure and contributor to patient safety. Our survey should provide impetus for all interested parties to discuss and agree a formal industry-wide approach to colour coding of inhaled therapies for the benefit of patients and carers and HCPs.
在许多国家，短效 β-激动剂吸入器传统上是蓝色的。与“预防药物”（吸入性类固醇）相比，这种吸入疗法也一直被患者和医疗保健专业人员（HCP）称为“缓解剂”。随着 COPD 和哮喘吸入治疗市场的快速变化和设备数量的不断增加，人们担心传统颜色规范的侵蚀会导致患者（和 HCP）对不同疗法的作用感到困惑。为了评估对感知到的颜色规范变化的关注程度，英国吸入器小组对患者和 HCP 进行了一项大型在线调查。目的是确定患者和 HCPS 如何识别和描述吸入药物，以及这可能如何影响药物的使用和安全性。调查结果强调了“蓝色吸入器”一词对患者的重要性，只有 11.3%的患者在提到吸入器时从不提及颜色。对于 HCP 来说，95%的人认为颜色规范在提到缓解药物时很重要。此外，HCP 在与患者交谈时似乎主要通过颜色来指代吸入器。我们的结论是，“蓝色吸入器”的概念对患者和医疗保健专业人员仍然很重要。这些结果增加了关于是否需要使吸入疗法的颜色编码规范化的争论，特别是使用蓝色来表示快速缓解症状的吸入器，因为这种规范可能是患者安全的一个重要措施和贡献。我们的调查应该为所有有兴趣的各方提供动力，讨论并达成一项针对吸入疗法颜色编码的行业范围内的正式方法，以造福患者、护理人员和 HCP。
