The College of Pharmacy discussed the MSc thesis entitled ”Assessment of disease burden, treatment satisfaction, and some biomarkers of COPD in stable patients”, by the student Samaa Diaa eldeen Ibrahim and the supervisor lecturer Dr. Ali Lateef Jasim at the Clinical Pharmacy Department. The study aimed to identify the burden of COPD in terms of its impact on work life and daily activities of the patients, detect biomarker levels (TNF-α and IL-6), determine the degree of satisfaction with the treatment, and investigate any possible correlation of these parameters with important outcomes. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 stable COPD patients who were diagnosed and treated in Kirkuk General Hospital’s respiratory and internal medicine consultation clinics in Kirkuk City, Iraq, between January and April 2023. The burden of COPD was measured by the Arabic form of the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI-COPD). The Arabic form of the COPD assessment test (CAT) assessed the symptom burden. The Arabic version of the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM-1.4) was used to assess the degree of patient satisfaction with the therapy they receive. The levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) were assessed. The study concluded that patients with COPD exhibit a disease burden in terms of productivity loss at work and activity impairment that increases with age and disease duration. The COPD patients had low satisfaction with their treatment regimen, this low satisfaction in turn affected their compliance, particularly at older ages and in those who had the disease for a longer period of time. The studied biomarkers were elevated above the normal range and were higher as disease severity worsened. The study recommended that physicians regularly assess their patients’ satisfaction with their treatment in order to understand patients’ treatment judgment mentalities and encourage them to participate in treatment-making decisions. Also, early diagnosis and management of COPD are recommended to reduce the burden of COPD by developing preventive strategies for risk evaluation, risk factor exposure reduction, and educational programs for workers in order to keep them working for a longer time. Also that the inflammatory biomarkers IL-6 and TNF-α could be used in the comprehensive assessment of COPD with clinical assessment and spiromtery to predict exacerbation, morbidity and mortality risks.
