Reported use of asthma management plans in South Australia

To examine the use of asthma management plans (AMPs) and specific elements of AMPs in a South Australian community.

Cross-sectional questionnaire survey by experienced interviewers.

307 adults with current asthma, confirmed by a doctor, who were among 3001 respondents of a representative sample of 4065 South Australian adults recruited by multistage systematic clustered area sampling for a larger study in March 1995.

Prevalence of reported use of AMPs and of specific elements of AMPs, such as knowledge of trigger factors and having an action plan, and the proportion of adults with asthma receiving what we defined as "good management".

46% reported having an AMP; 63% had discussed trigger factors with their doctors and 39.5% had action plans. 82% had been told the severity of their asthma, and 23.3% were receiving good management.

Less than half of people with asthma use AMPs, although certain elements within the AMPs are reportedly being used more frequently. More research is required on why AMPs are not more generally used and, more importantly, on what elements within the AMP model are useful and effective for people with asthma and likely to be used by their general practitioners (GPs).