Asthma patients who attend primary health care centers (PHCCs) with asthma clinics tend to have better knowledge about their disease than those who attend PHCCs without such clinics, research shows.
Writing in the Primary Care Respiratory Journal, Karin Lisspers and team from Uppsala University in Sweden explain: “To enable improvement in asthma control, guidelines emphasize the importance of education about the disease and its treatment in order to empower patients’ sense of control.
“Therefore, the organization of asthma care is important, and asthma clinics are today an integral part of many PHCCs in Sweden.”
To compare asthma knowledge and control among patients attending PHCCs with and without asthma clinics, the team surveyed 1477 randomly selected asthma patients, aged between 15 and 45 years.
The participants attended one of 42 PHCCs, of which 14 contained a complete asthma clinic, 14 had an incomplete asthma clinic, and the remaining 14 PHCCs had no asthma clinic.
Data from questionnaires completed by the participants revealed that 81% of patients who attended PHCCs with complete asthma clinics had “sufficient” knowledge of their disease, compared with 73% of those who attended centers with incomplete asthma clinics, and 65% of those who attended centers without an asthma clinic.
Patients who attended centers with complete asthma clinics had also received more education about inhaler techniques, had undergone more peak flow measurements, and were more aware of how to adjust their own medication in response to a worsening of asthma symptoms than patients in the other two groups.
However, there were no overall differences in asthma control or various components defining asthma control and quality of life between patients at PHCCs with and without asthma clinics.
The researchers also found that levels of asthma control were improved among patients attending asthma clinics where the nurses were allocated more time with their patients.
Lisspers and team conclude: “Having an asthma clinic at a PHCC improves asthma patients’ knowledge of the disease, and better asthma control is achieved if the nurse is allocated more time.”
They add: “This underlines the importance of good quality education and recognition of the special needs of the patient to empower them to gain control of the disease.”