Learning Objective #1: Understand the impact that knowledge, health beliefs, attitude and behavioral intention have on compliance behaviors with recommended asthma care in rural Appalachian adults diagnosed with asthma | |||
Learning Objective #2: Integrate an understanding of the specific culture and demographics of rural Appalachia and the impact on a chronic illness, specifically asthma |
Objective:To examine if knowledge, health beliefs, attitude, and behavioral intention to comply predict compliance behaviors with recommended asthma treatment regimens in Appalachian, rural adult asthmatics. Design: Predictive and descriptive correlational Population, Sample, Setting: A private allergy and asthma practice located in rural Appalachia (US) including parts of the states of Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. There were 102 adult participants meeting specified criteria. Concept variables studied together: A combination of concepts from the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior was used to guide this study. It was hypothesized that a combination of variables would predict compliance behaviors with recommended asthma treatment regimens better than any one variable alone. Method: A mailed Asthma Questionnaire consisting of a compilation of several instruments designed by the researcher was used to gather data. The instruments had internal consistency reliabilities ranging from .69 to .84 and measured the following concepts - Knowledge of Asthma Questionniare (KAI), Attitude Toward Asthma Instrument (ATAI), Health Belief Instrument for Adults Diagnosed with Asthma (HBIA), Asthma Behaviorial Intention Instrument(ABII), and the Asthma Compliance Instrument (ACI). Findings - Pearson's correlation and regression analyses yielded weak to moderate correlations and relationships among several of the study variables and indicated that a combination of the variables explained more of the variance in compliance behaviors than any one variable alone. Conclusions and Implications: Results of this study indicate that many variables (age, attitude, health beliefs, and behavioral intention to comply)have a significant predictive influence over compliance behaviors in this sample of adult asthmatics. The clinical implications involve a beginning foundation of support for a future design of exploratory studies and eventual interventional programs nurses may use in their practice to better serve rural adult asthmatics by helping to deacease morbidity and mortality rates related to asthma and improving quality of life.
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Back to 14th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
10-12 July 2003