Validation of a questionnaire for assessment of asthma patient knowledge and behaviour.
BACKGROUND
For several years, educational programmes have been highlighted because care success depends on patient's knowledge and patient's asthma management. However, no tool is available to assess change in patient knowledge and behaviour before and after completing an educational programme.


OBJECTIVE
To validate a questionnaire measuring the knowledge and behaviour of asthmatics participating in an educational programme and to gauge the benefit of such a programme.


METHODS
The Asthma Behaviour Change (ABC) questionnaire was generated from literature, patient surveys and clinical situations. It was organized in eight dimensions assessing patient behaviour in seven different clinical situations and two assessing patient (pathophysiology and therapeutic) knowledge. A total of 139 asthmatics filled out the questionnaire before, during and after the educational programme.


RESULTS
The principal component analysis confirmed the structure empirically made by clinical situations. Internal consistency analysis yielded high Cronbach's alpha values. Different dimensions and the two global scores were able to discriminate patients according to asthma severity. Finally, the effect size of difference before and after educational programme was at least 0.47, and was larger than 0.74 for both global behaviour and knowledge scores. The difference between visit 1 and 3 for global behaviour and knowledge scores reached 18.84 +/- 20.83 (P < 0.001, 95% CI: 13.18-24.43) and 11.06 +/- 14.98 (P < 0.001, 95% CI: 7.10-15.03), respectively.


CONCLUSION
ABC questionnaire is a valid tool to assess asthmatics' knowledge and behaviour. Furthermore, this study confirmed that educational programmes lead to better awareness of asthma by patients.