A Patient Education Intervention to Address Allergic Anaphylaxis-Related Quality-of-Life and Self-Efficacy

Allergic anaphylaxis diagnoses can impact quality of life and self-efficacy, which in turn can lead to poor outcomes. Patient education can help empower patients but may be inadequately implemented in clinical settings.

This quality improvement study utilized a retrospective pretest-posttest brief educational intervention design and retrospective chart review over 12 weeks in an allergy specialty practice. Adult-Anaphylaxis-QoL (A-QoL) and New General Self-Efficacy (NGSE) scales were analyzed with SPSS using Wilcoxon Sign Rank tests.

Sixty-six patients received the intervention. A-QoL was slightly, but statistically significantly, higher overall post intervention, 3.88 pre-test median, (IQR = 2.85, 4.81) vs post-intervention 3.95 median (IQR = 3.38, 4.68), (Z = -2.77, p < 0.01, d = -0.73). Significant improvements in social, emotional, and limitation subscales were found (p<0.01), with the largest improvement in the emotional subscale. A small, statistically significant, increase was also found in self-efficacy, 3.94 pretest median (IQR 3.25, 4.28), vs 4.13 post-test median (IQR 4.12, 4.75, p < 0.01), (Z = -4.43, p < 0.01, d = -1.30).

The implementation of evidence-based prevention-focused patient education was associated with modest but statistically significant increases in anaphylaxis-related quality of life and small, significant improvements in self-efficacy. This intervention was successfully implemented in a specialty allergy clinic to improve these outcomes and can be part of broader efforts to enhance patient education to reduce delays and improve appropriate use of epinephrine auto-injector.

Brief, evidence-based patient education can modestly improve quality of life and self-efficacy for severely allergic patients. More comprehensive interventions in diverse settings are needed to ensure that patient-centered education is coupled with linkage to epinephrine auto-injector carriage to ensure improved anaphylaxis outcomes.