Exploring chronic airways disease patients' perspectives on self-management topics

Objectives: In this study, we explored chronic airways disease (CAD) patients' responses to health literacy (HL) communication domain questions within disease self-management scenarios, as part of a larger CAD HL mea-surement tool development study.Methods: Adult asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients from specialty care respi-ratory clinics were initially presented with realistic disease management scenarios and asked to share infor-mation they would communicate. Participants' responses were grouped into response categories that were reviewed and verified by key informants. A new cohort of CAD patients then responded to the same scenarios and had their answers placed into the developed response categories by trained interviewers.Results: 19 initial stage participants' responses informed response categories for the following self-management topics: Inhaler Use (n = 20); Prednisone Use (n = 30); Flu (Influenza) (n = 35); and Weather Forecasting & Air Quality Index (n = 29). 141 participants' responses were categorised during the second stage.Conclusions: Specialty care CAD patients displayed an understanding of key information to communicate across disease self-management topic. Our two-step, patient-driven approach may interest researchers investigating health-related communication from patients' perspectives.Practice implications: Findings may illuminate potential areas to investigate communication gaps among CAD patients; further investigation is warranted among non-specialty care patients.