Asthma Management in Pregnancy: Young Female Doctors Knowledge and Practice

Background: Optimal asthma control in pregnant women is very much essential for the good health of both mother and the fetus. Maternal and fetal compli-cations occur due to poor control of asthma. There are concerns that management of bronchial asthma in pre-gnant women should be optimal by the health pro-fessionals. Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the knowledge and practices of young female doctors abo-ut the bronchial asthma management in pregnancy. Study Design: Randomized evidence based. Institute of Chest Medicine, King Edward Medical University, Mayo Hospital, Lahore – Pakistan Study Setting: Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) interviews for women medical officers and female doctors working in different medical units and chest unit of Mayo Hospital – a tertiary care hospital affiliated with King Edward Medical University, La-hore. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire based sur-vey of knowledge and practices of one hundred and one female doctors in the management of bronchial asthma was made. Amongst these, 32 doctors were FCPS – 1 in medicine and gynecology. Remaining 69 doctors were in the pipeline and they have completed one year house job in different specialties. The case scenario was “Asthma management approach during pregnancy in a stable patient of moderate severity”. Inclusion Criteria 1. All those female doctors who have completed one year house job. 2. Female doctors working in gynecology, medicine, surgery and allied specialties. Results: Overall 14 (13.6%) doctors {5 (35.7%) PGs and 9 (64.3%) Non PGs} have the standard prescrip-tion of inhaled corticosteroids with long acting inhaled B2 agonists and montelukast as controller medication and short acting inhaled B2 agonist as needed as reli-ever medication according to the standard guidelines. Conclusion: The majority of young female doctors had the suboptimal knowledge and practice of asthma management in pregnancy. We suggest initiating the training programs to optimize their knowledge and practices.