Assessment of Knowledge Levels of Elementary and High School Teachers on Childhood Asthma

Introduction: Asthma is a major cause of absenteeism in school-age children. Studies have shown that teachers' knowledge of asthma reduces school attendance rates. Collaboration between patients, physicians, family and teachers is an important factor in the success of treatment and decrease in the frequency of attacks in asthma patients. In order for teachers to take a more active role in this cooperation, their knowledge levels should be increased by providing trainings on childhood asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge levels of elementary (primary and secondary) and high school teachers working in Istanbul regarding childhood asthma. Methods: This questionnaire was conducted between June and December 2012 with the participation of 825 teachers working in 22 randomly selected schools. The questionnaire was given to the teachers participating in the study, which questioned the general information, symptoms, triggering factors of asthma crisis, emergency intervention and treatment information about childhood asthma. Results: In our study, the level of general knowledge about childhood asthma was found to be the highest and the level of knowledge about asthma triggering factors was the lowest. Regarding gender, the mean scores of the female teachers about asthma were significantly higher than male teachers. The total asthma awareness scores of the teachers working in public schools were found to be significantly lower than the teachers working in private schools (p=0.001). Having asthma experience was found to cause a significant increase in childhood asthma knowledge scores of teachers (p=0.001). When the comparison was made according to the expertise in teaching, experienced teachers had more knowledge about asthma triggering factors, whereas the teachers with less professional experience were more knowledgeable about the emergency intervention in asthma attack (p=0.016). Conclusion: Our study will contribute to the national asthma control program. We believe that informing teachers about asthma is important in asthma control and will contribute to the guidelines for training programs.