Trial of Lay-led Individualised Self-management Education for Adults With Asthma

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Asthma

Interventions: Behavioral: Self management education

Registration Number: NCT00129987

Lead Sponsor: Imperial College London

Brief Summary: Long term conditions often necessitate long term care. In many cases, giving control of their conditions to the patients themselves produces the best outcomes. Such patient education and the acquisition of self-management skills can be time consuming and the evidence suggests that the process is often not undertaken by doctors. Sometimes it is delegated to nursing colleagues, but all health professionals are in short supply. Patients carry credibility as a resource and this project is designed to determine, by means of a multi-centre randomised controlled trial, whether well trained lay educators can deliver training in self-management education to others with asthma, with outcomes equivalent to those achievable by a nurse.

Detailed Description: This study will be a randomised controlled trial looking for equivalence; the investigators' central hypothesis is that lay-led education will be at least equivalent to professional-led education in terms of patient outcomes. Patients will be randomised to receive either lay-led or professional led self-management education. Patients will be followed up longitudinally for 12 months from initial intervention. Two sites were studied; Manchester and London. It is anticipated that 16 sites will be recruited in each of the two geographical areas; all sites will have an asthma register. Individuals will be eligible for inclusion if they are adults; have clinician diagnosed asthma; have persistent disease and require regular therapy, with some evidence of variability in their disease, such that a self management plan would be appropriate. Both genders will be eligible, as will those unable to see or read. Individuals will be excluded if they have severe cognitive impairment; they decline to be randomised; they decline to receive asthma education and follow-up solely from the designated educator, other than in an emergency situation, or their condition does not show variability.

The intervention in the study will be a disease-specific asthma self-management education programme delivery either by a professional (ie practice nurse) or a lay educator. Both lay and professional trainers will receive specific training in the content and delivery of this intervention. The intervention will consist of an initial 45 minute training session (including receipt of a written personal asthma action plan); a second face to face reinforcing session 3 weeks after the first session; 3 monthly telephone follow-up appointments to reinforce messages and to give ongoing advice with availability of the nurse or lay educator as a source of advice at all other times. Data will be collected on unscheduled use of health care, peak flow readings, patients' self-reporting of "adverse events", RCP three questions, perceptions of the interviews using MISS-21, QOL questionnaire and AQLQ. Demographics for all patients will also be recorded.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 567

Inclusion Criteria

Adults step two therapy (BTS)
Evidence of poorly controlled disease

Exclusion Criteria

Unable to benefit from self management education
Other respiratory conditions other than asthma

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Nurse group	Self management education	An initial consultation of up to 45 min offered either by a practice based primary care nurse, followed by a second shorter face to face consultation and telephone follow-up for 1 year.
Lay educator group	Self management education	An initial consultation of up to 45 min offered either by a lay educator, followed by a second shorter face to face consultation and telephone follow-up for 1 year.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of Participants With Unscheduled Use of Healthcare	1 year	Healthcare consists of one or other of hospital admission, emergency department attendance, unscheduled consultation with a GP

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of Participants With Use of Asthma Medication	1 year	Number of participants with courses of steriod tablets
Lung Function	1 year	(peak flow measurement)
Quality of Life Questionnaires	1 year	(MISS-21) with Quality of life questionnaires