title: What asthma patients know about their illness and its treatment.
abstract: The purpose of this paper is to describe what adult asthma patients in Finland know about asthma and its treatment. The data were collected with a questionnaire specifically developed for this study. The response rate was 86.6% (n = 130). The respondents' knowledge scores were quite high: 34% had good knowledge, 51% had fairly good knowledge, and 15% had satisfactory knowledge of their disease and its treatment. Women knew more about asthma and its treatment than men (p = 0.043). The item on which there was most uncertainty related to whether it is possible to prevent asthma. The most surprising finding was that as many as 30% believed that the only way to reduce asthma symptoms is by effective medication.
authors.affiliation: University of Turku.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mäkinen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suominen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lauri
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires