Effectiveness of an education programme by a general practice assistant for asthma and COPD patients: results from a randomised controlled trial.

In this study a randomised controlled trial was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of an education programme for patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). All asthma and COPD patients using medication and experiencing pulmonary symptoms were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=139) or usual-care group (n=137). The intervention consisted of taylor-made education conducted by a general practice assistant and focussing on a patients' technical skills and coping with the disease.