Techniques and impact of education in adult asthmatics

A major cause for the discrepancy between the increase of mortality and morbidity due to asthma and advances in clinical assessment and treatment of the disease is inefficient asthma management. Patient education is a powerful tool for helping patients to gain the motivation and skills to control their asthma. An effective teaching and treatment programme for asthmatics should include information about the disease, prevention and treatment of asthma attacks and bronchial infections, and training of self-management of airflow limitation by the patients. On the basis of the currently evaluated programmes for asthmatic adults, patient education diminishes the frequency of asthma attacks and decreases the disability of the patients. By a reduction of emergency treatments, hospitalizations, and days lost from work a decrease in the costs of the often life-long treatment of asthmatics can be expected. Therefore, patient education should be an integrated part of current asthma management.