Knowledge, awareness, and practice of the use of peak flow meters by physicians in the management of asthma in children

The peak flow meter (PFM) is a useful device in asthma monitoring and in determining the severity of symptoms. Against the background of reported underutilisation of PFMs in the management of asthma and prescription for home use, and the paucity of such data in developing countries, this study was carried out to assess the knowledge, awareness, and practice of physicians on the use of PFMs in the management of children with asthma. The work was a prospective cross-sectional study involving 67 doctors working in the paediatric departments of two government hospitals in Lagos State, Nigeria. The number of doctors varied as not all responded to all the questions. The figures therefore correspond with the number of doctors that responded to the particular issue/question addressed. The survey was conducted with a self-administered structured questionnaire. Information obtained included the availability of PFMs in consulting rooms, knowledge of their use, benefits, frequency of prescription, and constraints in prescribing PFMs for the home management of asthma. Only 13 (20.0%) of the doctors (n=65) used the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) regularly in the diagnosis of asthma. The designation of the respondents and the years of experience in the management of asthma were significantly related to the frequency of prescription of the PFM (p=0.007, p=0.003 respectively).Non-availability was the highest constraint to PFM use (75.0%), followed by the cost of the PFM (51.7%). This study revealed that the physicians’ knowledge about the PFM was suboptimal. The meters were rarely used in diagnosis nor prescribed for home management by physicians attending to asthmatic children at the two referral hospitals. The cost and availability of the PFM should be addressed by the hospital management.