Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on asthma among Thai adults: a case study in Ratchaburi province, Thailand

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was carried out at Photaram Hospital, Ratchaburi Province, Thailand, from February to March, 2011. The main purposes of this study were to identify asthma OPD patient‘s demographic data, to identify the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of preventive behaviors regarding asthma, and to identify the relationship among them. The subjects in the study were asthma OPD Thai adults who were aged over 18 with 441 samples by using a structured interview questionnaire to gather the data with ethical view protocol. For data analysis, SPSS version 16 was used. Descriptive statistics was employed and Chi-square test was used to describe the relationship between independent variables and practice on asthma. The results showed that 55.1% of the subjects were female and 44.9% were male, majority of the respondents (79.6%) were aged between 18-59. More than half (54.0%) were married, 53.1% were in the range from 3 to 4 in family members. Most of the subjects (68.3%) had secondary school or higher education. Thirty one point seven percent had primary school or lower education. Thirty one point three percent of the subjects were agricultural workers, and 68.7% non-agricultural workers. Forty two percent of the subjects had an income of less than 10,000 baht per month, while 54.8% of the subjects had expenditure less than 10,000 baht per month. Respondent‘s period of suffering from asthma were between 2-9 years (68.8%) and 78.9% of the subjects were non-smokers. Among them, 90.0% did not have a check PEF to control their asthma symptoms. Twenty point nine percent of the subjects had high level of knowledge of asthma, low level of attitude was 68.5%, and 32.4% was high level of practice on asthma. There were association between knowledge and attitude (p<0.001), knowledge and practices (p<0.001), and attitude and practice (p<0.001). This study was done with the expectation that the information obtained can be used as a baseline data for further studies. More complete cycle of KAP are needed to prevent asthma symptoms among adults in Thailand.