In order to conduct a search on the topic. "Does education of the patient and the family in self-care management result in improved health and functional health in adult asthmatics?," I first looked for key words in the question. First I put in "patient, education and asthmatic". The responses did not fit properly; they were more schooling oriented. I next put in "adult, self-care, asthma and education." I was closer, but the education was skewing the responses. Finally, I put in "adult, self-care and asthma." I also requested articles after 2003, because I wanted newer studies. This brought up about 227 articles; many of them were oriented toward specific ethnic/cultural groups; these were not applicable. I thus went with the two that appeared to be the most comprehensive and informative on the subject.
             The first article, "Can asthma control be improved by understanding patient's perspective I thought should be included. This was not only because of its subject and abstract that closely related to the above question, but also it consisted of responses from a panel of professionals at the International Primary Care Respiratory Group who considered the evidence to date on the subject and discussed the implications for primary care practice. This article, then, would provide an overview of a number of different researchers on this topic.
             Based on research to date, these healthcare professionals debated the following questions: 1. What levels of asthma control are patients currently achieving? 2. What are the common causes of poor control?, and 3. What are the main patient-related determinants of asthma control? In response to the question about education and self-management, these professionals concluded: It is possible to improve current levels of asthma control if healthcare professionals do four things: 1) use appropriate, patient-centered tools to assess control; 2) identify the reasons for poor control in individual patient...