Two short interventions to reduce health care requirements in asthma patients. A multicentre controlled study (ASTHMACAP II)

Abstract Background and objective Asthma control is suboptimal. The objective of this study was to reduce health care requirements and work absenteeism. Material and methods Multicenter randomized controlled study investigating asthma control, educational parameters, health service use, and absenteeism. After adjusting treatment according to GINA recommendations, control group patients (CG) followed their physician's recommendations, while intervention group (IG) patients additionally underwent a 5-minute educational intervention. This protocol was repeated at 3 months, and a final assessment was carried out at 6 months. Results 479 patients (mean age 40 (SD 17) years) were recruited from primary care, and 334 completed the study. Comparatively, IG patients showed an improvement at the 3- and 6-month evaluations in the six educational parameters ( P P P P P P P P Conclusions Two short educational interventions improved asthma education and decreased the use of health resources and work absenteeism.