Impact of an extensive asthma education campaign for physicians on their drug prescription practices

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of an extensive education campaign for physicians, in effecting positive changes, in their asthma prescription practice, in line with the ′Saudi protocol for diagnosis and management of asthma′. MATERIALS AND METHODS : An extensive campaign on asthma management for physicians in Saudi Arabia was conducted in 1995-1996, based on the ′Saudi protocol for asthma diagnosis and management′. During this campaign, one day courses-cum-workshops were held in 19 different cities, for over 2500 physicians (8% of all physicians in the kingdom). To evaluate the changes in asthma prescription, we retrospectively reviewed the charts of 98 asthmatic patients in 1994 and 100 patients in 1997, attending the outpatient department of two tertiary care hospitals, with over 500 beds, each in Riyadh and Jeddah. Data on demographic profile of the patients, Pulmonary function test and medications prescribed, were analysed and compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The mean age and severity of asthma was similar in both the groups.The prescription rate of inhaled steroids and inhaled beta-agonists increased significantly, with decrease in the use of oral beta-agonists, oral steroids, Theophylline, sodium cromoglycate and ketotifen. Conclusion: The use of inhaled steroids and inhaled beta agonists, considerably improved after the asthma education campaign for physicians in Saudi Arabia. Education campaign for physicians may be effective and could help in the improvement of clinical practice towards a specific disease.

Keywords

• Bronchial asthma
• education campaign
• prescription practices
• Saudi protocol.