Larson and colleagues outcome conducted a brief, nurse led, patient education session with general practice review of an Asthma Action Plan. The design featured a prospective cohort with before-after measures conducted in six rural general practices. Outcome measures were changes over 12 months in self-reported asthma control, quality of life, device use, and unscheduled general practice and emergency department visits for asthma exacerbations. Eighty-three patients participated. Mean asthma control score decreased but did not reach statistical significance (p=0.124). Quality of life improved for adults (Wilcoxon rank signed test for two related samples p<0.001). The proportion of patients who had one or more unscheduled visits to their general practitioner over 12 months decreased from 23% to 13% (p=0.178) and emergency department presentations decreased from 9% to 4% (p=0.102).

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU AS A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER: The authors concluded that a structured general practice based education appears to be an effective preventive health care program, with the potential to reduce expensive unscheduled use of health services.

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU AS A PATIENT: Studies such as this conducted in rural environments permit all asthma patients to learn self-management skills. With the expanded use the Internet and the web, all patients should be able to receive this training if they wish. Reaching this goal, in turn, will be of major assistance to health care providers practicing in these areas.

A Larson et al. Impact of structured education and self-management on rural asthma outcomes. Australian Family Physician, 2010;39:141-144.