Physician's perspective regarding asthma guided self-management: directives or guidance?

Area of Science:

• Respiratory Medicine
• Patient Care Management

Background:

• Asthma guided self-management empowers patients in condition control under physician supervision.
• Understanding physician perspectives on guided self-management is crucial for optimizing asthma care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how physicians perceive, endorse, adopt, and support asthma guided self-management.
• To investigate physicians' understanding of disease management, treatment goals, and the medical guidance framework.

Main Methods:

• Secondary analysis of a multicenter collective case study involving interviews with asthma-treating physicians.
• Reflective thematic analysis to explore physicians' views on guided asthma self-management.

Main Results:

• Physicians perceived optimal self-management as patient adherence to instructions and symptom-based pharmaceutical adjustments.
• Physicians' views aligned with patient-centered care, yet guidance remained directive and paternalistic.
• Non-pharmacological strategies like exercise, smoking cessation, and self-monitoring were minimally considered.

Conclusions:

• Physician perception of asthma guided self-management is generally aligned with best practices.
• A gap exists between physicians' understanding and the practical, directive implementation of guided self-management.
• Greater emphasis on non-pharmacological interventions and patient empowerment is needed for effective asthma self-management.