Impact of Therapeutic Education on Asthma Control, Medication Adherence, Knowledge and Quality of Life in Moroccan Adult Asthma Patients

Asthma is still a partially or not controlled disease in most cases despite the availability of effective treatment options. It is among the most common causes of annual intensive care unit visits and physician admissions. Therapeutic patient education can be an effective strategy to improve patients' knowledge to understand their disease and develop coping strategies. This will eventually lead to symptom control and improvement in treatment compliance and quality of life.

This study aimed to assess the effects of a structured educational intervention on asthma control, medication compliance, asthma knowledge, and quality of life of adult asthma patients

This study included 211 adult asthma patients over 18. The Asthma Control Test (ACT), the eight-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8), the mini Asthma Quality Life Questionnaire (mini-AQLQ), and the Adult Patient Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire (AP-AKQ) were completed both before and after the three-month educational intervention. Comparison of pre-and post-education outcomes was performed by the Wilcoxon test for quantitative variables with non-normal distribution as well as qualitative variables.

Three months after the educational intervention, there was a significant improvement (p<0.001) in ACT score from (18.00 (15.00-21.00) to 20.00 (19.00-21.00), mini-AQLQ score from 5.04 (4.44-5.72) to 5.75. (5.25-6.35), MMAS-8 score from 6.00(3.00 - 8.00) to 8.00(6.00 - 8.00) and AP-AKQ score from 39.00(36.00-43.00) to 51.00(48.00-52.00). Also, the proportion of patients with well-controlled asthma, good compliance, and higher quality of life increased significantly.

Our results suggest that a structured educational intervention, with content based on patients' perceived needs, may provide benefits regarding disease control, medication adherence, quality of life, and knowledge in asthma patients.