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The following discussion of asthma education is based on the paradigm shown in Figure 1. Briefly, there are available, effective management strategies for the on-going treatment of asthma and the management of acute exacerbations. With effective education, patients with asthma can acquire the appropriate knowledge and skills to self-manage asthma appropriately. However, to achieve an improvement in indexes of morbidity (or mortality), a change in self-management behaviour is required; specifically, improved knowledge has to be translated into a change in behaviour. Asthma education generally includes instruction on the following: avoidance of allergenic and nonallergenic triggers; role of medications; chronic management of asthma; identification of an exacerbation; and the actions to be taken in the event of deterioration in asthma control. The last two are generally incorporated into an action plan and are discussed in more detail under that heading. Figure 1) A model of asthma education