Asthma and Myths: An online survey

Abstract

Objective: To determine the information about myths regarding asthma among internet users.

Methodology: An open access internet based close ended survey was hosted on a website which included questions related to common myths regarding asthma. Data was entered automatically into a database at the hosting servers. The survey invitations were sent by email by the authors with request to forward to the contact lists of recipients. After closure of survey, data from responses were recoded into new variables as correct and incorrect using the key made by the authors. Frequencies of correct responses were reported and analyzed on the basis of gender, educational status and profession.

Results: A total of 782 complete responses were submitted out of which 498 (63.7%) were submitted by males and 284 (36.3%) by females. Majority of the participants were graduate (36.1%) and postgraduates (44.8%), while the most common profession of the participants was doctor (49.9%) followed by non-medical students (17.1%). Frequency of correct responses was better in males. Lowest correct responses were given by unemployed and best responses were given by doctors. Self-employed persons fared better than bankers and people associated with education. Surprisingly non-medical students fared better than medical students.

Conclusion: There is a need to increase public awareness regarding asthma, as the status of relatively educated internet users is also inadequate.