Abstract
Aim: To investigate how important parent's level of general education was for the success of organized Asthma Educational Intervention (AEI) program. Methodology: We assessed parents' knowledge of asthma by questionnaire before, immediately after and 12 months after AEI in hospital settings. The Intervention I group of parents (N 231) received full AEI (audiovisual education about all the aspects of asthma and proper use of asthma medications, and workshop/panel discussions with the hand-on book “Meet your asthma”). The Control C group of parents (N 171) received instructions for proper medications inhalation technique and the hand-on book. Results: There was no difference in the knowledge of asthma between I and C groups at the beginning of the study. The knowledge of asthma in I group significantly increased immediately after the AEI (χ2=144.14, p<0.01), and did not change (t=1.45, p>0.05) during 12 months period after the AEI. The knowledge of asthma in C group did not improve during the study (Z=0.73, p=0.17). According to their level of general education, we had four groups in I group of parents: with low (<8), middle (8-12), high (13-15), and very high education (>15 years of education). The final knowledge of asthma was significantly higher in I group (t=7.79, p=0.01) compared to C group, and did not differ between parents according to the parent's level of general education (p>0.05). Conclusion: Parent's level of general education was not relevant for the AEI. The C group of parents did not read hand-on book and did not improve asthma knowledge. Audiovisual education/workshop/discussion was successful way to transfer knowledge of asthma to I group of parents.
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