Abstract
Asthma is a chronic illness that affects the everyday life of patients who suffer from it and is a cause of quality of life impairment (QoL). Patients with asthma were studied in order to establish the level of knowledge concerning asthma and the degree quality of life impairment due to asthma. The purpose is to evaluate the quantitative relationships between the level of knowledge and quality of life in adult Asthmatics. Through 2010 year, 242 subjects were recruited from visiting the Allergy Outpatients. Patients from 18 year of age to 51 year old were eligible. Patients completed the asthma knowledge questionnaire and asthma-related quality of life questionnaire (SGRQ) at second physician visit, after the education information. The level of Knowledge Asthma was measured using the questionnaire of the asthma knowledge. Response options were presented as true/false. Each question had a score of one (maximum score of 24). Mean asthma knowledge score in the population was equal to 11,71. Total scores ranged from 25% to 75%. The asthma knowledge score was correlated significantly with the symptoms domain (R=-0.45, p<0.001), the activity domain (R=-0.20, p=0.002), the impact domain (R=-0.29, p<0.001) and the SGRQ total score (R=-0.29, p<0.001). A negative value of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient means that the patients who obtained high scores in the asthma knowledge questionnaire had a tendency to obtain low scores in the second variable, and vice versa. This study shows that level of knowledge asthma correlate with domains of asthma-related quality of life by SGRQ. The results suggest that it is necessary asthma knowledge to achieve long-term effectiveness of asthma control and QoL.
- © 2011 ERS