Poster Presentation
Water's Edge Ballroom (Hilton Waikoloa Village)
Thursday, July 14, 2005
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Water's Edge Ballroom (Hilton Waikoloa Village)
Thursday, July 14, 2005
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
This presentation is part of : Poster Presentations I
The Effects of an Asthma Education Program on Knowledge and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Bronchial Asthma
Kwua-Yun Wang, RN, MS, School of Nursing, National Defense Medical Center, National Defense University, Taipei, Taiwan
Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to assist asthma patients to manage their diseases using the effective strategy.
Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to apply professional partnership to promote asthma patient care.

Purpose: The effects of an asthma education program on knowledge and quality of life in Taiwanese patients with bronchial asthma was studied during a 6-month follow-up period. Methods: A total of 104 patients who met the study criteria were recruited from a teaching hospital's outpatient asthma clinic in Taipei area, Taiwan. Thirty-five of the patients were assigned to the nurse's education only group, 34 to the nurse's education combined with pharmacist counseling group, and 35 to the control group using random block design. A structured-education program was designed. Data at follow up were available in the intervention and control groups for 30, 29, 32 respectively. Measurement were done at baseline, and at 3, and 6 months after enrollment. Outcome measures were asthma knowledge, medication adherence, and health-related quality of life. Data were analyzed using the Student's t test, Chi-squared test, and one-way ANOVA. Results: The major findings were that knowledge mean score differences were significantly increased in the intervention groups compared to the control group at 3-month and 6-month follow up. The nurse's education combined with pharmacist counseling group had greater positive changes than the nurse's education only group. In terms of overall health-related quality of life, the mean score difference in the nurse's education combined with pharmacist counseling group was significantly higher than the control group at 3-month and 6-month follow up. Conclusions: Regular and repeated guidance by pharmacists would be valuable to combine with nurse's education to enhance a better outcome for asthma patients.