Asthma Action Plans Knowledge for Thailand’s Health Care Professionals
Tamonwan Sorawet*, Thitima Hirunyanitiwattana*, Patchara Boonya-anuchit BNS**, Pattarin Pirompanich MD**, Orapan Poachanukoon MD**
Affiliation : * Medical student, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Pathumthani , Thailand ** Center of Excellence for Allergy, Asthma and Pulmonary Diseases, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand
Background : Asthma is the most common chronic diseases and its patients suffer from a high level of morbidity. Health care
professionals play a crucial role in effective treatment because, most patients obtain their knowledge of the disease from their
physicians and hospital clinicians.
Objective : To determine the level of asthma knowledge in health care professionals with respect to asthma symptoms, activity
limitations, environment triggers, and educating patients.
Material and Method: The attached questionnaire has been modified and administered to a group of health care workers in
Thammasat Hospital. It is statistically valid and reliable and has proven to be an indispensable tool for staff. It has been
completed by 365 health care professionals including nurses, physicians, and pharmacists in primary and secondary
hospitals from different parts of Thailand. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate overall scores. The total sum score
was calculated and analyzed using SPSS.
Results : A total of 295 questionnaires were returned which provided a response rate is 80.8%. About 86.8% of the respondents
were female aged between 20 to 30 years. The majority of participants was nurses and had less than 10 years of experience
in asthma clinics. About half of respondents were already using an asthma action plan. More than half of respondents claimed
to understand the disease including activity limitations, asthma symptoms, and environment factors correctly. Some 44.1% of
physician respondents, 15.1% of nurse respondents, and 75% of pharmacist respondents could not answer some of asthma
action plan knowledge questions correctly leading to the conclusion that asthma action plan knowledge is lacking throughout
the health profession especially in regard to steroid medication.
Conclusion : The survey showed that health care professionals in primary and secondary care hospitals in Thailand,
especially, lack asthma knowledge that is crucial for them to explain to self-care managed asthma patients. The survey also
suggests that improvement in asthma awareness and treatment can be made by educating this group of health care professionals
primarily because they have access to asthma patients on the clinical level. Ultimately, it is the patients who need to follow the
guidelines in order to support long term disease management.
Keywords : Asthma, Health care professionals, Knowledge, Long-term management
