Can lay people deliver asthma self-management education as effectively as primary care based practice nurses?
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether well trained lay people could deliver asthma self-management education with comparable outcomes to that achieved by primary care based practice nurses. DESIGN: Randomised equivalence trial. SETTING: 39 general practices in West London and North West England. PARTICIPANTS: 567 patients with asthma who were on regular maintenance therapy. 15 lay educators were recruited and trained to deliver asthma self-management education. INTERVENTION: An initial consultation of up to 45 min offered either by a lay educator or a practice based primary care nurse, followed by a second shorter face to face consultation and telephone follow-up for 1 year. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Unscheduled need for healthcare. Secondary outcome measures: Patient satisfaction and need for courses of oral steroids. RESULTS: 567 patients were randomised to care by a nurse (n = 287) or a lay educator (n = 280) and 146 and 171, respectively, attended the first face to face educational session
