Evaluation of a randomised controlled trial of adult asthma education in ahospital setting

Background-Although patient education is a key step in the Australian Asthm a Management Plan, its impact has not been assessed in a hospital outpatien t asthma clinic. Methods A controlled trial was undertaken in 125 adults with asthma recruit ed from the Alfred Hospital Asthma and Allergy Clinic and randomly allocate d to an intervention (n = 64) or control (n = 61) group. Subjects in the in tervention group attended three education sessions, each of 90 minutes dura tion, spread over three successive weeks. Asthma knowledge, quality of life , self-management skills, and attitudes and beliefs about asthma were asses sed by questionnaires at baseline and after six months. The intervention gr oup was also assessed immediately after the three education sessions. The c ontrol group was evaluated after six months of usual care. Results-Asthma knowledge improved significantly in the intervention group a fter 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 signific antly 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. How ever, the control group had also improved their knowledge, quality of life and self-management skills after six months of usual care. The difference i n mean change in knowledge score at six months between the intervention and control groups was not significant (p = 0.51). Conclusions-In contrast to some other studies, a Limited asthma education p rogramme in a hospital outpatient setting had a positive impact on patients ' knowledge of asthma, but not on their quality of life, self-management sk ills, or attitudes and beliefs about asthma.