The correlation between parental education and their knowledge of asthma.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of parental education on the success of Asthma Educational Intervention (AEI). METHODS: AEI took place after the children's hospitalisation. Parental asthma knowledge was assessed at three time points: before AEI, immediately after, and 12 months later. The Intervention (I) group of parents (N=231) received complete AEI. The Control (C) group of parents (N=71) received instructions for proper use of asthma medications and the handbook. RESULTS: Asthma knowledge in I group increased immediately after the AEI (p<0.01), and had not changed (p>0.05) 12 months later. There were four subgroups in group I divided based on education level: elementary school, high school, college, and university degrees. Taking into account the parental education level, there were no differences in the baseline and final knowledge of asthma between subgroups (p>0.05). The number of asthma exacerbations decreased after AEI (5.96:2.50, p<0.01), regardless of the parental degree. Knowledge of asthma in group C did not improve during the study (p=0.17). Final asthma knowledge was higher in group I compared to group C (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The parental education level did not influence the level of asthma knowledge after the AEI. The motivation and the type of asthma education had the greatest input on the final results. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: All parents should be educated about asthma regardless of their general education.

Sputum cytopathological findings in pig farmers.

The purpose of this study is to compare the cytological changes in the respiratory tracts of pig farmers exposed to an environment of swine confinement buildings with control, non-exposed subjects living in the same geographical area. Spontaneously produced sputum specimens were obtained from 133 pig farmers and 120 control subjects, all clinically healthy, and grouped according to smoking habits and sex. The findings of siderophages, eosinophils, abnormal columnar cells and respiratory spirals were significantly more frequent in the pig farmers. Siderophages were noted in 25.6% of pig farmers and in 5% of control subjects. By logistic regression analysis, pig farming is the single predictive factor for siderophages and eosinophils. For other cytological abnormalities, except Creola bodies and granular debris, smoking is the most significant predictive variable, but pig farming, age and male sex also correlate with smoking. Atypical squamous metaplasia was observed in 11.3% of pig farmers and in 5.8% of control subjects. These findings are in concordance with previous epidemiological and clinical studies and also reveal a new aspect of the harmful effect of pig farming exposure to the vascular and epithelial structures of the respiratory tract. It also demonstrates the usefulness of the simple method of sputum cytological analysis.