The Relationships Between Personal Factors, Pre-Hospital Location and Time to Admittance for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients with Acute Exacerbation

Abstract

Acute exacerbation or sudden worsening of COPD symptoms is nowadays quite common in both developed and developing countries and is a crucial incidentce since it may cause sudden death. The purposes of this study were to examine pre-hospital time before seeking treatment and relationships of age, sex, pre-hospital location, symptom awareness and pre-hospital time for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with acute exacerbation. Subjects were one hundred twenty three patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with acute exacerbation at Taksin and Klang Hospitals between 17 September and November 1, 2015., Questionnaires sought demographic information and assessed of pre-hospital time of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Descriptive statistics, Chi-Square Test and Eta Correlation were used to represent and analyze data. Results showed that 84.6%of subjects were male andbetween 50 and 59 years. (x ̅= 52.9, S.D. = 5.42). Median scores of pre-hospital time was 60 minutes. (IQR = 30). There were significant relationships between pre-hospital location, symptom awareness, perceived severity and pre-hospital time for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with acute exacerbation (x^2= 12.254, p = .007 ,x^2 = 14.969, p = .010,x^2 = 15.425, p = .000, respectively) Most patients who stayed at home got treatment quickly (68.1%) and family members transfered them to hospital with acute exacerbation (73.8%). There was no relationships between age or sex and pre-hospital time for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with acute exacerbation. Information obtained from this study may be beneficial to nurses in order to develop informational interventions to limit pre-hospital time to treatment at home for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Nurses should increase actions to educate patients and , family members to be able to correctly assess signs and symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease when acute exacerbations occur. This will help increase appropriate self-management and timely treatment.