Patient knowledge and self-management of asthma at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Adult Asthma Clinic

This study assessed patients' knowledge of asthma, their level of self-management and satisfaction with care at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Adult Asthma Clinic.

This study was a quantitative cross-sectional study at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Adult Asthma Clinic in Accra. Sixty-eight (68) clinically diagnosed asthma patients who have been attending clinic regularly for reviews for more than six months, were recruited in this study. An abridged version of the Asthma Knowledge and the modified version of the Asthma Self-Management Questionnaire was used to assess the outcome measures of interest.

This study showed that patients were adequately informed about the various domains of knowledge in asthma, that is; etiology (73.5%), pathophysiology (67.7%), symptoms and assessment of severity (74.3%), medication (92.3%), prevention (98.5%), and natural history (93.0%). Two-thirds of the patients (66.0%) had adequate knowledge regarding asthma, 41.2% of patients had a high level of self-management and, 19.1% had poor self-management. There was no association between level of education (p = 0.619), gender (p = 0.673), age group (p = 0.534), and knowledge regarding asthma.

This study has shown that most asthma patients attending the KBTH Asthma Clinic have adequate basic knowledge about asthma and its treatment, although there are aspects of etiology, pathophysiology, symptoms, and assessment of severity that need reenforcement. Also, most patients had good self-management skills and agreed that self-management was an integral part of improving healthcare outcomes. Targeted interventions should be developed and implemented to improve patient knowledge and self-management to ensure a high quality of life among asthma patients.