Dikranian Lea C, Irish D Elizabeth, Shanley Kathleen E, Walker Don R, de Waal Malefyt Stephen K
Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI, United States of America.
Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY, United States of America.
PEC Innov. 2024 Aug 5;5:100330. doi: 10.1016/j.pecinn.2024.100330. eCollection 2024 Dec 15.
Improper use and poor understanding of asthma medications can lead to poorly controlled asthma, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations for children with asthma. Pharmacists play a critical role in improving asthma medication adherence through education on asthma self-management. The use of color-coded labels applied at pharmacies to help patients differentiate between rescue and maintenance inhalers has not been explored.
Pharmacies were recruited to join a community pharmacy asthma coalition. Pharmacists provided patient education and labeled inhalers with two types of color-coded stickers. A red sticker labeled "RESCUE" was used for short-acting β-2 agonist medication inhalers. A green sticker labeled "USE EVERY DAY" was used for inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) or combination ICS/long-acting β-2 agonist medication inhalers.
During the two years of the pilot program, 25 pharmacy locations participated. Pharmacies labeled over 6000 rescue and 9000 controller medications using color-coded labels. Over 1000 children and 7000 adults were served by the coalition.
Color-coded asthma medication labels can be successfully utilized by pharmacies. This low-cost tool provides vital information regarding the proper use of asthma medications.
The color-coded labeling of asthma medications is a novel innovation that can be successfully used by pharmacists to improve asthma self-management education.
哮喘药物使用不当及理解不足会导致哮喘控制不佳、急诊就诊以及哮喘患儿住院。药剂师通过哮喘自我管理教育在提高哮喘药物依从性方面发挥关键作用。尚未探讨在药房使用颜色编码标签以帮助患者区分急救吸入器和维持治疗吸入器的情况。
招募药房加入社区药房哮喘联盟。药剂师提供患者教育，并使用两种颜色编码贴纸为吸入器贴标签。红色“急救”贴纸用于短效β-2激动剂药物吸入器。绿色“每日使用”贴纸用于吸入性糖皮质激素（ICS）或ICS/长效β-2激动剂联合药物吸入器。
在试点项目的两年中，有25个药房地点参与。药房使用颜色编码标签为6000多种急救药物和9000多种控制药物贴标签。该联盟为1000多名儿童和7000多名成年人提供了服务。
药房可成功使用颜色编码的哮喘药物标签。这种低成本工具提供了有关哮喘药物正确使用的重要信息。
哮喘药物的颜色编码标签是一项新颖的创新，药剂师可成功利用它来改善哮喘自我管理教育。
