Effects of an outpatient education program in patients with uncontrolled asthma

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of an outpatient education program in patients with uncontrolled asthma. METHODS: This was an uncontrolled study evaluating an educational intervention and involving patients with uncontrolled asthma ≥ 14 years of age. The participants completed a questionnaire designed to assess the level of asthma control, the inhalation technique, and quality of life. All of the patients underwent pulmonary function testing, after which they participated in an education program consisting of one 45-min face-to-face session, followed by phone interviews at two, four, and eight weeks. The participants were reevaluated after three months. RESULTS: Sixty-three patients completed the study. There was a significant improvement in the level of asthma control (p < 0.001). Of the 63 patients, 28 (44.4%) and 6 (9.5%) were classified as having partially controlled asthma and controlled asthma, respectively. The mean FEV1 was 63.0 ± 20.0% and 68.5 ± 21.2% of the predicted value prior to and after the educational intervention, respectively (p = 0.002), and all of the quality of life scores improved (p < 0.05 for all). The same was true for the proportion of patients prior to and after the educational intervention using the proper inhalation technique when using metered dose inhalers (15.4% vs. 46.2%; p = 0.02) and dry powder inhalers (21.3% vs. 76.6%; p < 0.001). The logistic regression analysis revealed that an incorrect inhalation technique identified during the first evaluation was independently associated with a favorable response to the educational intervention. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that an outpatient education program for asthma patients improves the level of asthma control, lung function parameters, and quality of life. An incorrect inhalation technique identified during the first evaluation was predictive of a favorable response to the educational intervention.

Efficacy of an Asthma Self-management Education Intervention for Children (9-13 Years) with Asthma and Their Caregiver in Wuhan, China

“…Similar to previous studies [2], asthma control level improved after intervention. While in this study, the rate of well-controlled asthma management increased from 13.9% to 77.8% in the intervention group compared with 36.1% to 38.9% in the control group.…”

“…On the contrary, in an outpatient education program for children with uncontrolled asthma ≥ 14 years of age, FEV1% was proved to be significantly increased [2]. The different characteristics of the participants, the Efficacy of an Asthma Self-management Education Intervention for Children (9-13 Years) with Asthma and Their Caregiver in Wuhan, China 126 small sample size, varying asthma education content and the interval to retest FEV1% may have led to these results.…”

“…It is considered to be one of the most common chronic childhood health conditions [1]. Children with asthma and their caregivers/parents report physical, economical, and psychological burdens associated with asthma [2][3][4]. Over 9% of children in the United States (6.7 million) were diagnosed with asthma in 2007 and its prevalence continues to increase [5].…”

Knowledge on Self-Management and Level of Asthma Control among Adult Asthmatic Patients Attending Kalar General Hospital

“…Asthma control is not difficult to reach target and can be achieved through the design and implementation of a tailored treatment plan that considered the complexity of multiple interrelated factors needed to attain this goal [19,20]. One of the few studies assessed asthma control in Africa, reported a high proportion of patients had inadequately controlled asthma and the factors associated with it were female sex and obesity [21].…”

“…Each item has five response choices (each with a score ranging from 1 to 5). Accordingly, the level of asthma control is as follows: controlled (score 20-25), partially controlled (score [15][16][17][18][19], uncontrolled (score <15) [12,16] . The raw score was transformed to range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more asthma control for the purpose of determining its relationship with patients' characteristics.…”