Abstract:
This study was carried out to assess the knowledge on asthma among the primary school teachers in selected schools of Batticaloa zone at Manmunai north division. 162 of school teachers responded to the questionnaire and their knowledge on asthma was assessed based on four main areas such as knowledge on symptoms and severity, knowledge about the management options at school level, knowledge about the inhaler, and triggering factors. This is a cross sectional study. Primary data was collected through a validated questionnaire for the study and those data was analyzed using the descriptive statistics in IBM SPSS software. The ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee, Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern University, Sri Lanka to carry out the research project. In addition, written permission was obtained from the relevant authorities for data collection. We found that the primary school teachers have good knowledge on symptoms and severity (94.4%), management options (67.9%), and triggering factors of asthma (93.8%) But they don’t have enough knowledge about the use of inhalers (35.8%). However, as an average, 73% of the primary school teachers out of the total sample in Batticaloa district have a good knowledge on asthma. Overall, the majority of the primary school teachers know about the symptoms and severity of asthma and also most of them know how to manage the asthma at school level. In addition, they have good understanding and knowledge about the triggering factors of asthma as well. However, many teachers’ knowledge on the use of inhalers is unsatisfactory. Therefore, Increasing the knowledge of asthma among school teachers in Batticaloa is essential to ensure the safety and well-being of students with asthma.
