Asthmatic children risk empty puffer use

By Jacqueline Maley
November 6, 2004

Many asthmatic children have no idea when their inhaler medication has run out, and may be breathing in nothing but propellents long after the puffer's active ingredients are used up, research shows.

"It's a significant problem, something that isn't really addressed by the drug companies who make these things," said the director of respiratory medicine at the Sydney Children's Hospital, Dr John Morton.

"People often ask, 'How do you tell when it's getting empty? Ventolin is the tricky one because people need it in a hurry and if you don't get it, you're in strife."

The US researchers interviewed a group of children and parents on the children's use of their asthma inhalers.

They found 74 per cent of the children did not know how many doses were in their canisters and all of them used their puffer until they could no longer "hear" the medication when it was released.

Experts say this is not an accurate way of learning whether the canister is empty.

The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Chest, concluded if patients are not taught to recognise when their puffers are empty, they might use the medication for up to twice its intended lifespan.

The problem applied in Australia too, said Christine Jenkins, head of the Asthma Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Camperdown.

"It's reasonable to assume there wouldn't be any difference in patients' knowledge of the number of puffs between the US and Australia," she said.

Dr Quentin Summers, from the National Asthma Council, said knowing when puffers were empty was a long-standing problem.

He said it was unlikely manufacturers would build a dose-counter into regular inhalers because of the cost involved.

"It certainly is a problem for our asthmatics, as it is for asthmatics all over the world."