Asthma Bottle Spacers: Overview

Problem
Asthma is one of the fastest growing urban health problems throughout the world. It affects children in low income areas more than others and can contribute to early mortality and delayed development. Inhaled medications are the mainstay of asthma therapy. Plastic tubes, called “spacers” are used to make delivery of the medication more efficient by allowing more of the medication to go where it is needed. This also makes the inhaler to be more cost effective.
Inhalers can cost as much as $60 each and an individual using multiple inhalers can spend as much as $150 per month on inhalers.

Spacers are also expensive, costing the patient between $10 and $30 each. Spacers are often not covered by insurance plans. Providers may not prescribe spacers and parents often forego the purchase of a spacer because of the expense already incurred for expensive inhalers.

Summary
An asthma spacer is used with an asthma inhaler to make the medicine more effective by slowing down the spray and allowing the patient to coordinate their breath with the medication delivery. It can improve the efficiency of an inhaler by 70%.