ASSESSMENT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF INHALER USE AND ASTHMA CONTROL

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: the burden of asthma is a public health concern because asthma patients often use the emergency care unit causing a high number of school days lost, work day lost, early permanent disability and premature death. Direct assessment of knowledge of inhaler use and asthma control among asthma patients is necessary because majority of asthma patients use their inhaler device wrongly. PURPOSE: the study assessed the knowledge of inhaler use and asthma control among asthma patients attending outpatient respiratory clinic in FMC, Asaba. METHODS: The cross-sectional study comprising of physician-diagnosed patients attending the out-patient respiratory clinic in FMC, Asaba, Delta State; was conducted using socio-demographics data form to collect relevant data regarding the respondents. A step-by-step approach was used to determine the respondents’ knowledge of inhaler use and a standard Asthma control test questionnaire was used to determine the respondents’ level of asthma control. These were all entered into Microsoft Excel and uploaded into SPSS Version 2.1. Descriptive statistics was presented as frequencies, percentages for categorical variables as well as mean and standard deviation (S.D} for continuous variables. Chi-square was computed to determine the association between the respondents’ socio-demographics and their knowledge of inhaler use. RESULTS: A total of 57 asthmatics patients (45 females) with mean age 33.63±10.03 were recruited from a tertiary health facility. Half of the respondents were on monotherapy (short-acting beta 2 agonists; SABA oral). Knowledge of the respondents on the use of inhaler was poor at a percentage of 41(71.9%) as people that had poor knowledge (as gotten from the step-by-step approach to inhaler use}. Total Weighted mean score for the Asthma control test was (18.43±4.125) using 20 as cut-off mark to determine the level of asthma control. There was no statistical significant correlation between the knowledge of the respondent and age, r=9.183, N=57; (p=0.57), but there was statistical significant correlation between the knowledge of the respondent on the use of inhaler with their highest level of qualification r=14.215, N=57; (p=0.00), marital status r=22.12, N=57; (p=0.00) and religion r=7.39, N=57; (p=0.024.