Coad patient's use and understanding regarding long-term oxygen therapy

Abstract

Chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD) is increasing around the world and thus also the use of long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT). There are several studies about the effects that L TOT has on patients with COAD; about the modes or sources of delivery; about oxygen administrative devices; and about the hazards that such therapy has. However, little is known about the knowledge that patients with COAD have regarding LTOT. Patients' knowledge depends largely on educational interventions. Thus, if patient education is not conveyed well, then the knowledge of these patients regarding LTOT will be poor and this will result in a lack of the efficacy of LTOT. Therefore, this small-scale study aimed to assess the knowledge of patient suffering from COAD regarding L TOT. Thus, this will give an indication about patients' knowledge and use of oxygen therapy. This small-scale study adopted a cross-sectional exploratory descriptive non-experimental research design by using a survey method. The data was collected by means of face-to-face semi structured interviews. The findings of the study overall point out that respondents lack information regarding LTOT. Even though, the majority of the participants reported being given some information about oxygen therapy, it can be concluded that they still need to be informed about many issues regarding their oxygen therapy. Therefore, these findings highlight the importance and need of patient education because there are still some patients on L TOT who lack essential information, even though they have been on oxygen for a number of years.