Abstract

Objective: Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. Many studies have shown that education positively affects asthma control and patients’ quality of life. In this study, it was aimed to measure the awareness levels of children who have been under observation for a long time and who underwent Allergen Specific Immunotherapy (AIT).

Methods: Patients with asthma, asthma & allergic rhinitis and/or rhinoconjunctivitis who received subcutaneous AIT between July 2019 and December 2019 were included in our prospective case-control study. A questionnaire was applied to each patient, in which both the levels of awareness related to their disease and AIT, as well as their knowledge of the allergens and prevention measures they were sensitive to were measured. The results were examined. Age, gender, type of allergic diseases, allergen type, AIT time were evaluated statistically.

Results: 82 cases (48 boys and 34 girls) were included in the study. The number of patients who know the name of the disease correctly is 68 (82.9%); The number of patients who knew allergens to be sensitive was found to be 47 (57.3%). It was observed that 15%-72% of the cases had information about asthma disease. Age, gender and diseases of the patients were not statistically different.

Conclusion: In our study, it was observed that our children were highly aware of especially about sports and environmental protection methods. It is essential to raise awareness of patients and parents for increase treatment success and control the asthma.