Age at asthma onset and asthma self-management education among adults in the United States

Abstract

Objective: Asthma self-management education improves asthma-related outcomes. We conducted this analysis to evaluate variation in the percentages of adults with active asthma reporting components of asthma self-management education by age at asthma onset. Methods: Data from 2011 to 2012 Asthma Call-back Surveys were used to estimate percentages of adults with active asthma reporting six components of asthma self-management education. Components of asthma self-management education include having been taught to what to do during an asthma attack and receiving an asthma action plan. Differences in the percentages of adults reporting each component and the average number of components reported across categories of age at asthma onset were estimated using linear regression, adjusted for age, education, race/ethnicity, sex, smoking status, and years since asthma onset. Results: Overall, an estimated 76.4% of adults with active asthma were taught what to do during an asthma attack and 28.7% reported receiving an asthma action plan. Percentages reporting each asthma self-management education component declined with increasing age at asthma onset. Compared with the referent group of adults whose asthma onset occurred at 5–14 years of age, the percentage of adults reporting being taught what to do during an asthma attack was 10% lower among those whose asthma onset occurred at 65–93 years of age (95% CI: −18.0, −2.5) and the average number of components reported decreased monotonically across categories of age at asthma onset of 35 years and older. Conclusions: Among adults with active asthma, reports of asthma self-management education decline with increasing age at asthma onset.

• Behavior
• epidemiology
• health
• prevention
• respiratory
• surveillance

Acknowledgements

The Asthma Call-back Survey is jointly administered with the Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services, Division of Behavioral Surveillance; data collection is managed by BRFSS coordinators in each of the participating states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.