[Effects of patient education in asthma and COPD--what is provable?]

In international and national guidelines patient education is recommended as an integral part of an effective management for both, asthma and COPD, respectively. The evaluation of numerous structured education programs for adult asthmatics revealed an increase of quality of life of the educated patients, reduced morbidity with less asthmatic attacks, a decrease of emergency visits, sick leave days and hospitalizations due to asthma. On the basis of cost/benefit analysis cost effectiveness could be demonstrated for education programs for asthmatics. On the basis of education programs in COPD including self-management, in a randomized controlled study an improvement of the patient's ability to react to exacerbations could be shown, thus reducing the morbidity by the disease. Further controlled studies of the effects of patient education on morbidity, mortality and cost effectiveness are necessary to establish the role of structured education programs in the treatment of COPD with sufficient validity.