| Summary: | 碩士 === 國防醫學院 === 護理研究所 === 88 === Asthma is a chronic respiratory airway disease altering the social life of patients. When asthma are not well controlled, it will limit patient''s social life, and therefore will deteriorate their quality of life. Self-management of the patients who suffered from chronic diseases has been understood as an important issue for a successful treatment. In addition, previous studies also indicated that self-management of the patients can be improved by educating patients with appropriate understandings of the diseases. However, it is still lack of evidence that the quality of life for asthma patients can be improved by educating them with proper self-management knowledge. Thus, the purpose of this quasiexperimental research was to address the issue described above.
There were eighty-five qualified subjects selected from Asthma OPD in a teaching hospital in Taipei City. The subjects were assigned into the control group (54 patients) and the experimental group (31 patients) by convenience. Both groups answered the same questionnaires on two occasions, before the group-education program, and after one month. One hour prior to the group-education program for asthma patients, the experimental group finished the questionnaires, including demographic data, Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire and Asthma General Knowledge Questionnaire for Adults. Subsequently, the experimental group received a four-hour group-education program for asthma. One month later, the experimental group performed the same basic questionnaires again. In contrast, the control group only received the questionnaires. The data was analyzed using percentage, arithmetic average, standard deviation, t-test, one way ANOVA, and Pearson''s product-moment correlation. Significant level is 0.05. Result revealed as followings:
1. Before the experimental intervention was administered, the average scores of asthma knowledge and overall asthma quality of life in both groups were 19.92 ±4.66 and 5.26± 1.05 respectively.
2. After the experimental group received the intervention, the scores of asthma knowledge, overall asthma quality of life, limited activities domain, symptoms domain, emotional functional status domain, and exposure to environmental stimulus domain were increased from 19.65 to 23.06, from 5.06 to 5.42, from 5.06 to 5.33, from 5.06 to 5.46, from 5.12 to 5.40, and from 4.94 to 5.52, respectively. The asthma knowledge, overall asthma quality of life, symptoms domain, and exposure to environmental stimulus domain showed a statistical significance (p < .05). In contrast, the increased scores of asthma knowledge, overall asthma quality of life, and the other four domains in the control group did not show any statistical significance.
3. The change in scores of Asthma General Knowledge Questionnaire was positively correlated with those of overall Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (r = 0.342, p < .05), emotional functional status domain (r = 0.319, p < .05), and exposure to environmental stimulus domain (r = 0.351, p<.05).
4. In conclusion, asthma knowledge as well as asthma quality of life may be significantly improved by providing asthma patients with appropriate education. As the change level in the scores of asthma knowledge was increased, the change level in the scores of emotional functional status domain and exposure to environmental stimulus domain was also increased.
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