title: Knowledge and attitudes of adolescents towards asthma: questionnaire results before and after a school-based education program.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies on school-based education programs have reported that asthmatic and nonasthmatic adolescents, teachers and school personnel do not have enough information on asthma. However, the number of education programs including adolescents without asthma is not sufficient. The aim of the present study was to determine the knowledge of school children about asthma and to investigate whether their knowledge of asthma can be increased by an education program through a booklet distributed as a handout.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional prospective questionnaire survey was carried out in a private school in Ankara, Turkey, between February and April 2006. 720 adolescents in grades 6, 7 and 8 were included. Knowledge about asthma was evaluated by a scoring system before and after the education offered by means of a booklet.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final analysis was conducted on 642 students in total. The number of right answers in 5 categories, percentage of right answers and total questionnaire score improved significantly after the education received (p < 0.001). The total questionnaire scores of the girls (p = 0.002), those students with a university graduate mother (p = 0.006) and those with a physician parent (p = 0.041) were higher than those of the other pupils.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Theoretical material in the form of a booklet can be used in a school-based asthma education program in order to improve the knowledge of adolescents about asthma.
authors: Department of Pediatric Allergy, Kecioren Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. cemrazi2 @ gmail.com
authors: Cem Hasan
authors: CH
authors: Razi
authors: Arzu
authors: A
authors: Bakırtaş
authors: Sadık
authors: S
authors: Demirsoy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey