Evaluation of a randomised controlled trial of adult asthma education in a hospital setting
O Abdulwadud, aM Abramson, aA Forbes, aA James, bE H Waltersb
a Department of
Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Victoria,
Australia, b Department of Respiratory Medicine, Alfred
Hospital, Victoria, Australia
Correspondence to: Associate Professor M Abramson, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash Medical School, The Alfred Hospital, Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia.
Received 27 July 1998; Returned to authors 11 September 1998; Revised version received 25 November 1998; Accepted for publication 23 December 1998
BACKGROUND
Although
patient education is a key step in the Australian Asthma Management
Plan, its impact has not been assessed in a hospital outpatient asthma clinic.
METHODSA controlled
trial was undertaken in 125 adults with asthma recruited from the
Alfred Hospital Asthma and Allergy Clinic and randomly allocated to an
intervention (n = 64) or control (n = 61) group. Subjects in the
intervention group attended three education sessions, each of 90 minutes duration, spread over three successive weeks. Asthma knowledge,
quality of life, self-management skills, and attitudes and beliefs
about asthma were assessed by questionnaires at baseline and after six
months. The intervention group was also assessed immediately after the
three education sessions. The control group was evaluated after six
months of usual care.
RESULTSAsthma
knowledge improved significantly in the intervention group after three
education sessions (p = 0.0001) and this was retained six months later
(p = 0.03). The impact of asthma on quality of life decreased
significantly immediately after intervention (p = 0.03) but this was
not maintained six months later (p = 0.35). On the other hand, the
intervention had little impact on self-management skills or attitudes
and beliefs about asthma. However, the control group had also improved
their knowledge, quality of life and self-management skills after six
months of usual care. The difference in mean change in knowledge score
at six months between the intervention and control groups was not
significant (p = 0.51).
CONCLUSIONSIn
contrast to some other studies, a limited asthma education programme in
a hospital outpatient setting had a positive impact on patients'
knowledge of asthma, but not on their quality of life, self-management
skills, or attitudes and beliefs about asthma.
Keywords: asthma education; outpatient clinic
© 1999 by Thorax
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Smith, S., Mitchell, C., Bowler, S.
(2008). Standard versus patient-centred asthma education in the emergency department: a randomised study. Eur Respir J
31: 990-997
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Shaheen, S. O, Newson, R. B, Rayman, M. P, Wong, A. P-L, Tumilty, M. K, Phillips, J. M, Potts, J. F, Kelly, F. J, White, P. T, Burney, P. G J
(2007). Randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled trial of selenium supplementation in adult asthma. Thorax
62: 483-490
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Stock, S., Redaelli, M., Luengen, M., Wendland, G., Civello, D., Lauterbach, K. W.
(2005). Asthma: prevalence and cost of illness. Eur Respir J
25: 47-53
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Gibson, P G, Powell, H
(2004). Written action plans for asthma: an evidence-based review of the key components. Thorax
59: 94-99
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Castro, M., Zimmermann, N. A., Crocker, S., Bradley, J., Leven, C., Schechtman, K. B.
(2003). Asthma Intervention Program Prevents Readmissions in High Healthcare Users. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.
168: 1095-1099
[Abstract] [Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
