[Knowledge, attitudes and asthma quality of life of adolescents in schools. The need to educate our teaching centres]

Curricular intervention increases adolescents' knowledge about asthma: a randomized trial

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the impact of a curricular intervention concerning the knowledge about asthma among adolescents from a public school.

METHODS

This was a randomized, controlled trial study on a curricular intervention in asthma, carried out with asthmatic and non-asthmatic adolescents. The study participants were divided into a curricular intervention group for asthma (IG), and a control group with traditional curriculum (CG). Topics related to asthma were included in the curriculum, such as the disease concept, triggering factors, treatment, symptoms, action plan, and beliefs in popular myths about the disease. These topics were evaluated through a questionnaire with scores ranging from 0 to 20 points, expressed by the mean score. The acquisition of knowledge was evaluated 90 days and 540 days after the start of the intervention (baseline), by applying the mixed linear model for analysis of associations.

RESULTS

181 students participated in the study (IG=101 and CG=80). As shown by their scores before the intervention; the students were unaware about asthma (IG: x¯=10.7±2.9vs. CG: x¯=11.5±2.7 points), its treatment (IG: x¯=1.6±0.9vs. CG: x¯=1.6±0.8 points), and reported beliefs in popular myths about the disease (IG: x¯=1.5±1.1vs. CG: x¯=1.7±1.1 points). After the intervention, the IG showed higher overall knowledge (GI: x¯=15.5±3.1 points), as well as knowledge about the treatment (GI: x¯=2.5±1.0 points), and two times more knowledge in the field "beliefs in popular myths about the disease" when compared to the CG. A greater probability of achieving satisfactory knowledge about asthma was noted in the IG (RR=3.5), with NTT=2.0.

CONCLUSION

The inclusion of the asthma topic in the curriculum improved knowledge about the disease in a subgroup of students.

Knowledge of asthma in school teachers in nine Spanish cities

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the knowledge of asthma and its management in Spanish school teachers using the Newcastle Asthma Questionnaire (NAKQ).

DESIGN

Descriptive, observational prevalence study, using a self-report questionnaire on knowledge about childhood asthma and its management by teachers in pre-school, primary, and secondary schools in nine Spanish cities. Age, sex, academic training, teaching experience, courses in which they taught, and personal and family history of asthma, were collected from each teacher. For knowledge determination, the validated Spanish version of the NAKQ was used.

RESULTS

A total of 208 centers participated, including 7,494 teachers. The questionnaire was completed by 4,679 teachers (62.4%). The mean score of correct responses was 16.0 ± 4.8 points out of 31 (median = 17, range: 0-30). Only 6.8% of teachers were capable of pointing out the three main symptoms of the disease; 1.5% knew the triggering factors of an asthma attack; 8.6% knew two medicines useful during an asthma attack; 32.7% knew that inhaled medications had less side effects than pills, and only 3.8% knew of ways to prevent asthma attacks during exercise. In the multivariate analysis, variables significantly associated with a higher questionnaire score were a "lower age" (Beta coefficient = -0.09), "male gender" (Beta = 0.77), "being asthmatic" (Beta = 2.10), or "having close relatives with asthma" (Beta = 1.36) and "teaching in a private school" (Beta = 0.66) or in "compulsory secondary education" (Beta = 0.59).

CONCLUSIONS

Teachers have a low level of knowledge about asthma, with an important limitation in some aspects of the disease. They should be trained to recognize the main symptoms of the disease, on how to act in the event of symptoms, and the early identification of situations in which the pupils require health care assistance. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2016;51:678-687. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.