OBJECTIVES : Asthma patients struggle to control their asthma symptoms. Georgia Public Health District 8-2 (Southwest Georgia) is one of seven districts in Georgia that has an asthma prevalence rate over 7.5%. Rural patients in this district have high rates of asthma emergency department visits and hospitalizations. This study assessed the association between asthma self-management knowledge, asthma control, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

METHODS : A cross-sectional research design was used in this study. Researchers surveyed patients at three Albany Area Primary Health Care, a federally qualified health center, sites. Asthma self-management was assessed using the Asthma Self-Management Knowledge questionnaire (ASM-K). The Asthma Control Test (ACT) was used to measure patients’ control of asthma. A single item measure was used to measure patients' HRQoL. Covariates included age, gender, race, smoking status, insurance, health literacy, medication adherence and county of residence. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between asthma self-management knowledge, asthma control and HRQoL. SAS version 9.4 was used to conduct statistical analyses.

RESULTS : A total of 41 patients with asthma participated in the survey. The majority of patients were female (90.24%), and African-American (80.49%). Approximately 60% of patients had public insurance, 24.39% were uninsured, and 12% had private insurance. Multiple logistic regression results showed that patients’ knowledge about asthma self-management was significantly associated with asthma control. Compared to patients’ with lower asthma self-management scores, patients with higher scores were less likely to have poor asthma control (OR: 0.882, CI: 0.814- 0.956). There was no significant association between patients' asthma self-management and their overall HRQoL.

CONCLUSIONS : These results suggest that improving knowledge about self-management of asthma may help in improving asthma control in patients. Further research should test interventions to strengthen the relationship between asthma self-management knowledge and asthma control to improve patient outcomes.