Medicine Related Problems (MRPs) in Adult Patients with Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

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Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) have been classified as non-communicable diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO). These diseases contribute to the occurrence of around 4.2 million deaths globally. Medicine related problems (MRPs) refer to incidents associated with medicine therapy that interfere in the desired health outcomes. Patients with asthma and/or COPD are likely to encounter MRPs due to ineffective treatment, adverse drug reactions (ADRs), and/or medication errors (MEs). Therefore, the current study aimed to identify the prevalence, causes, and risk factors of MRPs among adult patients with asthma and/or COPD. A systematic literature review was conducted using 13 databases. These databases included PubMed, NELM, Embase, Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge, ScienceDirect, PsycInfo, British Nursing Index, Global heath, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, PsycExtra, and Cochrane Library. ‘Medicine related problems (MRPs)’ ‘adults’ ‘asthma’ ‘adverse drug reactions (ADRs)’ ‘drug related problems (DRPs)’ ‘adverse drug events (ADEs)’ ‘medication errors (MEs)’, and ‘Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease’ ‘(COPD)’ were used as search items. Only quantitative studies, which investigated MRPs in adult patients with asthma and/or COPD, were included. The results of the review retrieved initially 1146338 titles that were considered. The analysis of the titles of these studies identified 55 relevant abstracts, of which, 15 were included in the review. The data extracted from these studies showed that the MRPs had a prevalence rate of 39.8%, ADRs 4.6%, while MEs had a prevalence rate of 66.9%. The comparison of these prevalence rates showed that MEs and MRPs had a higher prevalence than ADRs. Theophylline was reported to have the highest prevalence rate of MRPs which required special consideration to ensure its safe use by patients. The findings of the current study would potentially provide insights pertaining to the reduction of the high rate of MRPs.