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PROPORTION OF ASTHMA PATIENTS WITH ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ASTHMA CONTROL IN A RURAL COMMUNITY, THAILAND

Asthma is a controllable disease. Poor asthma symptom control increased the risk of exacerbation. Accurate knowledge about asthma control can reduce risk behaviors, enhance good symptom control, and result in a minimal exacerbation. This study aimed to assess accurate knowledge about asthma control and factor related among asthma patients in a rural community. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 786 asthma patients using a simple random sampling method. Questionnaires were used, comprising two parts: socio-demographic and knowledge about asthma control. Data were collected by well-trained university student interviewers using the local language and then analyzed using frequency, percentage, independent sample t-test, ANOVA, multiple linear regression, and 95% CI. The response rate was 92.36% (726/786). This study found that 49.4.0% (359/367) (95% CI:45.75, 53.15) of asthma patients had accurate knowledge about asthma control. The most accurate knowledge referred to the exacerbation symptom “frequent asthma attacks showing the severity of the disease” (69.1%). The most inaccurate issue referred to the risk factor of the allergy to fabrics, drugs, food, chemicals, insects (59.0%). The factors related to accurate knowledge about asthma control levels in the asthma patients were age, marital status, and education. Half of the asthma patients had inaccurate knowledge about asthma control in terms of risk factors about allergic things and risk of asthma exacerbation from chronic sinusitis. For improvement, more attention should be paid to the misunderstood issues, namely, the risk factors, especially some triggers of asthma exacerbation.