Knowledge and attitudes of adolescents towards asthma: questionnaire results before and after a school-based education program

Knowledge and perception about asthma among students in a Nigerian single-sex secondary school

INTRODUCTION

Asthma is prevalent among children and adolescents. Few studies have assessed the knowledge and perceptions of asthma among adolescents.

OBJECTIVES

This study assessed the knowledge and perception about asthma among secondary school students in an all-girls school in Nigeria.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted in a Nigerian secondary school in Enugu State (February 2020). In Senior Secondary School (SS1, SS2 and SS3), students could be in one of three specialized classes: Sciences, Humanities and Business. A self-administered structured questionnaire was filled by conveniently sampled students in SS1 and SS2. Inferential statistics utilized the Pearson's chi-square test and multiple linear regression with statistical significance set as P < 0.05.

RESULTS

Three hundred and eighty-eight (388) students participated in the study (mean age = 14.64 ± 0.93 years). Majority of the students were in Science class (n = 299; 77.1%). There was high awareness about asthma (n = 384; 99.0%). More than half of them had good asthma knowledge (n = 279; 71.9%); close to three-fifths had favourable perception of asthma (n = 222; 57.2%). More students in SS2 had good knowledge of asthma compared to those in SS1 (76.7% vs. 67.2%; ꭓ²  = 4.338; P = 0.037). More students in Science class had favourable perceptions about asthma compared with those in Humanities and Business class (60.5% vs. 48.1% vs. 25.0%; ꭓ²  = 7.458; P = 0.024).

CONCLUSION

Majority of the students were aware about asthma and had good knowledge of the disease while close to three-fifths had favourable perceptions about asthma.

Systematic review and content analysis of asthma knowledge questionnaires: A focus on the knowledge surrounding acute exacerbation management

OBJECTIVES

Asthma education is a key component of asthma management. Asthma education around the management of a person who is having an acute exacerbation of asthma (often referred to as asthma first aid (AFA) training) is important, particularly in a school setting. There is no gold standard assessment of asthma knowledge and also there is no specific tool to measure the knowledge of AFA. Our aim was to identify asthma knowledge questionnaires and perform a content analysis. We were interested in evaluating the number, the type and the format of AFA questions.

METHOD

A literature search was performed to identify the instruments which were able to assess asthma knowledge of people with asthma and/or caregivers of people with asthma. An electronic database search was performed in EMBASE, IPA, MEDLINE and PUBMED. Articles which described the development or psychometric testing of an asthma knowledge questionnaire were included. The content of questions in each instrument was analysed and categorised using the NVivo software, and a secondary analysis was performed to identify knowledge questions relevant to the management of an acute asthma exacerbation.

RESULTS

Forty-four papers with 37 different instruments met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the instruments contained a relatively low proportion of questions related to the management of acute asthma, i.e., only 162 of the 780 questions (21%). No questionnaire had sufficient specific emphasis on acute asthma management knowledge to test the impact of AFA training.

CONCLUSION

There is a scope to develop an up-to-date validated acute asthma management knowledge questionnaire for use in research and clinical settings.