Background: Environmental control education is recommended for allergic patients with persistent asthma, but patients may not be willing to comply with recommendations. In a prior study from our group, only 24% of patients reported making any recommended environmental changes.
Objective: To determine what environmental changes allergic asthmatic patients say they would be willing to make and what changes they actually make.
Methods: Asthmatic patients with known perennial aeroallergen sensitization were asked by telephone to rate on a 1- to 5-point Likert scale their willingness to make specific environmental changes. Items with mean scores of 3 or higher were used to formulate a practical set of recommendations to be given to patients in stage 2 of the study. Stage 2 patients were given the advice formulated in stage 1 and then telephoned 2 months later to see what changes they actually made.
Results: Stage 1 patients (n = 60) were willing to institute 14 of the 18 proposed allergen-specific recommendations. Of 36 stage 2 patients who were allergic to mite, mold, and/or dander, 29 (80.6%) reported that they complied with at least 1 of the recommendations made in this study. Patients who owned their own home were significantly (P < .05) more likely (91.3%) to make at least 1 change than patients who rented their home (63.6%).
Conclusion: Pending additional information, we suggest that environmental control recommendations for mite, mold, and dander emphasize those used in this study because they appear to be practical for a substantial proportion of patients, especially if they own their home.
Copyright © 2012 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.