|
Related site |
Nurses with asthma often undertreated, study finds
Posted
11-15-99 Boston. A study of nurses with asthma concludes that many are undertreated or improperly treated-even though they tend to be better educated about health issues and have better access to health care than the general public. The report is based on the landmark Nurses Health Study-a prospective cohort study of 121,701 female RNs surveyed annually on health topics-and found that even when those with asthma are diagnosed, they may still be undertreated. "We don't have clear answers as to why," said R. Graham Barr, MD, a fellow in general medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and an author of the report. "We think it's a component of miseducation and people not taking their medication due to side effects." After studying 3,039 women with asthma, researchers concluded that only 56 percent of those treated for mild persistent asthma received treatment in accord with clinical guidelines. And while treatment of 68 percent of those with moderate persistent asthma was within guidelines, only 39 percent of those with severe persistent asthma were getting proper treatment, which researchers attribute to underuse of long-acting bronchodilators. "We would hope nurses would have better healthcare habits than the general population," Barr said. "We would expect them to have better access to health care and more contact with doctors, so we would expect they would be doing better than the general population." The report points out the need for better communication between asthma patients and their nurses and physicians, he said. Asthma accounts for 100 million days of restricted activity annually in the United States, but use of appropriate medications decreases the number of asthma attacks, hospital admissions, and total costs, the researchers noted. Researchers presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, held earlier this month in Chicago.
|