405
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

How do we manage asthma? Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice patterns among pulmonologists and allergists

, MD, , MD, MPH, , MD & , MD
Pages 130-138 | Received 24 Oct 2021, Accepted 20 Jan 2022, Published online: 03 Feb 2022
 

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare knowledge, attitude, and practice patterns between pulmonologists and allergists for adult asthma in Turkey.

Methods: Questionnaire-based data were gathered from 236 pulmonologists and 62 allergists, who had been members of the Turkish Thoracic Society and Turkish National Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in January–March 2021. Univariate and multivariate statistics were used to determine the factors associated with primary reliever preferences.

Results: Of the 298 physicians, 39% encountered at least five asthma patients daily. Spirometer was used frequently by both the allergists (82.3%) and pulmonologists (77.5%) for asthma diagnosis. Budesonide was the most preferred inhaler corticosteroid. Formoterol/budesonide was the most preferred ICS/LABA combination, followed by beclomethasone/formoterol and fluticasone/salmeterol for asthma treatment. For mild asthmatics, formoterol/ICS was the most preferred (72.6%) reliever among allergists, whereas salbutamol was the most preferred (66.1%) among pulmonologists (p < 0.001). Age and workplace were associated with salbutamol preference of doctors for mild asthmatics. Age, specialty, and patient examination time were significantly associated with salbutamol preference for severe asthmatics.

Conclusions: The use of diagnostic tools, such as a spirometer, for asthma diagnosis was compatible with the guidelines. While recent updates of the guidelines indicate that salbutamol should not be used solely in mild asthmatics due to its harmful effects in long-term use, it still was the most preferred drug by pulmonologists. Postgraduate education programs are needed to improve compliance with the guidelines.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Turkish Thoracic Society and Turkish National Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology for their support of our work. We would like to thank for the technical support by Yasar Cakir.

Conflict-of-interest statement

Authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.

Figure 3 .

Figure 3 .

Funding

None of the authors has any funding.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.