Educating asthmatic patients in primary care: a pilot study of small group education.

Patient education is an important part of asthma management. Individual education is usually used for this task. The object of this study was to assess whether another educational technique, educating patients in small groups, would be as effective and as acceptable as individual counselling in improving knowledge about asthma. A specially designed questionnaire was used to assess knowledge and other variables before and after education. Thirty-four patients were educated individually and 34 patients were educated in small groups. There were significant improvements in knowledge scores after both types of education. However group education took 4.5 hours for 34 patients whereas individual counselling took 14.25 hours for the same number. The results of this study suggest that educating patients in small groups is as effective as individual counselling in improving knowledge of asthma, is acceptable to patients and takes much less time.