What asthma patients know about their illness and its treatment.

The purpose of this paper is to describe what adult asthma patients in Finland know about asthma and its treatment. The data were collected with a questionnaire specifically developed for this study. The response rate was 86.6% (n = 130). The respondents' knowledge scores were quite high: 34% had good knowledge, 51% had fairly good knowledge, and 15% had satisfactory knowledge of their disease and its treatment. Women knew more about asthma and its treatment than men (p = 0.043). The item on which there was most uncertainty related to whether it is possible to prevent asthma. The most surprising finding was that as many as 30% believed that the only way to reduce asthma symptoms is by effective medication.