KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF LEBANESE ADULTS TOWARDS ASTHMA IN BEIRUT, LEBANON.

Asthma, a serious global health problem, has been an area of interest due to its increasing prevalence, expanding treatment costs, and rising burden on patients and the community. Since asthma cannot be cured, clinical episodes can be prevented and controlled by adequate management and sufficient knowledge of the disease. Appropriate treatment may relieve asthma symptoms and improve quality of life. However, poor knowledge of asthma disease and medication use, misdiagnoses, misuse of inhalers and inadequate self-management of disease symptoms may have a greater impact on the disease process. Therefore, assessment of the population's knowledge and attitude toward asthma is essential. To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies has assessed the population's knowledge and attitude regarding asthma in Beirut, thus this study was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude of Lebanese adults regarding asthma in Beirut, Lebanon. Additionally, the goal of this study was to determine the incidence from the studied sample of participants with physician-diagnosed and physicianundiagnosed asthma treated by bronchodilators/inhaled corticosteroids (BD/ICS). Furthermore, to identify from the sample studied the participants having the likelihood of asthma disease and to highlight the natural products used by the participants in managing asthma-related symptoms. Four hundred participants were enrolled in a cross-sectional study that was carried out using web-based anonymous questionnaires about asthma disease evaluating their knowledge towards the disease and attitude in Beirut, Lebanon. The study revealed that Lebanese adults had an inadequate level of knowledge regarding asthma, its medications, and asthma triggers. This lack of knowledge was reflected in their attitude towards the disease. Moreover, our study showed that 9.1% of the asthmatic participants who were questioned were undiagnosed yet by the physician and 33.3% of those were using BD/ICS to relieve their asthma symptoms. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that 18.75% of the questioned participants had recurrent respiratory symptoms and had features that associated with asthma, thus increasing the risk of developing chronic airway disease and asthma. However, only 8.25% of questioned participants were asthmatic. In conclusion, there is a need to improve the Lebanese community's knowledge and attitude by increasing the level of awareness about the disease. Several recommendations were suggested to advance the knowledge of asthma in order to improve future health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]