ANN ARBOR---Good communication between patient and doctor is as important to staying out of the hospital as getting the right asthma medicine, a new study by a University of Michigan researcher shows.

Noreen M. Clark, dean and professor of the School of Public Health at U-M, discusses her findings in this month's issue of Pediatrics, a publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"We know more about treating asthma than ever before, but at the same time there are more people hospitalized for asthma than ever before and the death rate for asthma has increased. Prevalence of asthma has also risen close to 70 percent in the last decade-and-a-half. Around 5,000 people die each year,'' she said.

Clark recently completed a research project in which 80 physicians underwent training on how to communicate and educate patients about asthma. Clark's research team studied 650 asthma patients to determine the effect communication had on patient outcomes.

"Asthma patients have to manage their disease day to day. With good instruction and self confidence, patients can take control of their disease. The key is having good instruction from the physician,'' she said.

Physicians who participated in the training were more likely to address patients' fears about medicines and review written instructions with patients. Parents of children treated by program physicians had more confidence in their ability to manage their child's disease at home.

Clark found that patients of physicians who participated in the communication training programs spent less time in the doctor's office---approximately five minutes less per visit. Also, they had fewer nonemergency (asthma) office visits.

She also noted that physicians tended to treat only episodes of bronchospasm of patients, instead of treating the underlying inflammati
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Contact: Amy Reyes
amelynr@umich.edu
734.647.4411
University of Michigan
13-May-1998