RATIONALE: Despite the importance of self-management for asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), there is a lack of information on health care professionals' (HCPs) perspectives of patient barriers to self-management and the possible solutions to overcome such barriers. OBJECTIVES: To assess key informants' (HCPs, researchers, and policymakers) perspectives on the barriers that they perceived an asthma/COPD patient may be faced with and the possible solutions to address them. METHODS: Between December 2015 and April 2016, 57 potential key informants from across the globe were invited to participate in in-depth interviews. Questions included: the skills a patient would need to manage their asthma/COPD; barriers inhibiting successful self-management practices; and the actions taken to address these barriers. The data was transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Interviews were conducted with 45 (15 male) key informants from Canada, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Perceived barriers to self-management included: information overload; inconsistent information; time constraints; medical jargon and reading level of materials; beliefs and attitudes about treatment; lack of patient involvement in developing materials; and memory problems and age. Six solutions were suggested: take-home materials; tailoring education; follow-up visits; promotion of questions; better communication and building relationships; and teach-back method. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that improvements are needed in terms of the interactions and relationships between patients and HCPs in order to fully engage patients in the use of self-management practices. Patient involvement in the development of educational materials is a key factor to ensure the applicability of health information and promote uptake.
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