Noncompliance & tobacco use in patients with long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT)

Introduction: LTOT requires patient´s perform the OT at least 15 hours/day, and for this reason presumably presents a high percentage of noncompliance. The objective of our work was to assess noncompliance & tobacco consumption in patients with LTOT in Salamanca (Spain). Materials and Methods: The population were all patients with LTOT (954 patients): 5 refused to participate, so the final sample was 949 patients. The assessment of noncompliance and tobacco consumption was carried out using direct methods (hourly-counter and CO in exhaled air) and indirect (patient surveys). Results: On the surveys, 733 patients (76.8%) declared themselves compliant and only 216 (22.6%) as non-compliant. By reading the hourly-counter it was observed that only 357 (37.2%) performed the LTOT ≥15 hours/day while 594 (62.8%) did not; 2.8% of patients acknowledged smoking an average of 11±8 cigarettes/day. In these patients, the mean CO value was 13.9±9.2 ppm (p <0.001) significantly higher than in the rest of patients (3.9±0.2 ppm). Non-smoking patients (CO <5 ppm) performed LTOT an average of 12.8 hours/day, while patients with CO ≥10 ppm (smokers) performed an average of 9.3 hours/day (p. <0.001). The only relationship found was between non-compliance and tobacco consumption. No other relationships were observed between personal variables (gender, age, domicile, living alone or accompanied) or treatment type (source, flow) and compliance. Discussion: Noncompliance in patients with LTOT is high and results in therapeutic ineffectiveness. Tobacco use is contraindicated, but some patients continue to smoke. In order to study direct methods are necessary since indirect methods (surveys) are not reliable.