Department of Nursing

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://repository.chuka.ac.ke/handle/chuka/255

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Browsing Department of Nursing by Subject "health literacy"

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    Self-management practices for asthma control among patients with asthma attending Chuka County referral hospital - Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya
    (Chuka University, 2024-10) Micheni Hellen Njeri
    Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the respiratory tract which arises from narrowing of the air passages leading to life-threatening symptoms of coughing, wheezing chest tightness and difficulty in breathing. It is a global public health problem that affects people of all ages contributing significantly to morbidity and mortality. According to estimates, 4.3% of the world's population has asthma with about 461 000 deaths being associated with the disease annually. In the developed countries the prevalence is estimated at 15 – 20% while in LMICs the prevalence is 12%. Kenya is depicted as having an asthma prevalence of 7.5%. At Chuka County Referral Hospital, asthma accounts for about 25% of the diseases of the lower respiratory tract. Asthma being a chronic illness requires self-management practices to achieve asthma control. Failure to engage in self-management leads to asthma exacerbations, emergency hospitalization, reduced productivity and poor quality of life (QoL). This study aimed at assessing self-management practices for asthma control among adult patients with asthma. The study was guided by the following specific objectives; to assess level of knowledge on asthma self-management, to determine asthma self-management practices, to establish determinants of asthma self-management and to determine the status of asthma control among patients with asthma at Chuka County Referral Hospital, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. A sample size of 118 patients was obtained using Fisher’s et al formula and the sample was selected using simple random sampling. A researcher administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences version 26 to generate frequencies, mean and measures of central tendency. At 5% level of significance, a Chi-square test was employed to determine associations between demographic variables and asthma control while Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between knowledge on asthma as well as selfmanagement practices and asthma control. The study concluded that; knowledge on asthma and self-management is statistically significant and negatively correlated to asthma control (r=-0.251, p-value=0.006) where individuals with knowledge on asthma and its associated self-management reported asthma symptoms less frequently and vice versa. Notably, 53.1% of respondents lacked knowledge on asthma triggers while 49.6% lacked knowledge on controller medications for asthma. Self-management practices were found to be statistically significant and negatively correlated to asthma control (r=-0.19, p-value=0.045) where patients engaging in self-management practices reported less frequent asthma symptoms. The study revealed that non-adherence to asthma medication is driven by factors such as absence of symptoms and high cost of medications. Key facilitators of asthma self-management practices include; effective communication with healthcare workers, availability and affordability of medications in government hospitals. Some of the reported barriers to asthma self-management include presence of comorbidities, poor self-control and lack of knowledge on ASM. On status of asthma control, the study established that a majority of the respondents (43.3%) had partially controlled asthma, 28% had uncontrolled asthma and only 28.7% had controlled asthma. This study has concluded that there are significant gaps in asthma self-management practices hence sub optimal asthma control which calls for improvements in asthma health literacy among patients with asthma. It is anticipated that the finding of this study will lead to improvements in self-management practices for optimal asthma control among patients with asthma.