Background: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in pregnancy, with implications for maternal and fetal health. Resources for clinicians involved in antenatal care are limited. We previously showed that while midwives saw themselves having a role in educating women about their asthma, they lacked knowledge and confidence to carry out this role. We designed the Asthma and Pregnancy Toolkit to meet this unmet need, and to raise awareness of the importance of good asthma management in pregnancy among all health professionals and families of women with asthma.
Methods: A team of over 50 clinicians and scientists from around Australia, UK, Denmark and USA developed the content for health professionals and the Toolkit was launched in December 2022. The Toolkit was endorsed by SOMANZ and Asthma Australia. We evaluated use of the Toolkit with Google Analytics and an online user survey accessible from the home page. Health professional workshops were conducted in the ACT as part of the dissemination plan, with a pre and post-workshop survey distributed to participants. Participant knowledge and workshop quality was rated on a 5-point Likert scale and confidence on a 4-point scale.
Results: After 7 months, the Toolkit had 33K page views, 11K unique users and 18K visits to the website; users came from 73 countries. After the homepage, the Asthma in Pregnancy and Medications sections were the most visited. The Toolkit survey was completed by 19 people predominantly from ACT (47%) and NSW (42%), including midwives (47%), medical trainees/students (21%), pharmacists (10.5%), individuals with asthma (10.5%), a respiratory physician and health promotion professional. Most (89%) respondents agreed/strongly agreed that their knowledge improved after using the Toolkit, 87.5% agreed/strongly agreed their confidence improved and 94% were likely to use the Toolkit in the clinic.
The ACT pre-workshop survey was completed by 24 health professionals: GPs (46%), midwives (42%), pharmacists (8.3%) and a registered nurse, from the public (45%) and private (55%) sectors. Current knowledge was rated very poor-average by 88%; 83% were not at all/somewhat confident with asthma management in pregnancy. Post-workshop surveys completed by 20 health professionals found knowledge improved in 88%. Confidence was rated as confident/very confident by 82%. All participants rated workshop quality as good/very good and were likely/very likely to recommend the Toolkit to women with asthma, and use it in practice.
Conclusion: This preliminary evaluation suggests the Toolkit is meeting the needs of health professionals involved in antenatal care.