Table 3.

Selected Participants’ Quotes on Self-Management Topics

Hospital map navigation	“[The map] is not relevant, not helpful, [assessing] navigation is not necessary. Things [locations] just need to be clearly labelled in hospitals and they [patients] will get it.” – Asthma “I hate the map; what relevance does it have?” – Asthma
Action plan	“I have [an] action plan but I’m not sure if I should use it or if I should follow it properly because once I had flare up and I think it was not helpful. I don’t remember where I put it [action plan].” – COPD “I like the action plan. I think this really helped me, with medication.” – Asthma
Prednisone use	“I don’t like how it [prednisone] makes your heartbeat rise and I don’t know how prednisone is made. Prednisone does have a lot of drawbacks with only a few positives.” – Asthma “Some people are on prednisone forever, it’s an awful way to live. It’s horrible. I never slept for three months, there’s no sleeping. Weight gain, yeah, I swell up, it was horrible.” – COPD
Flu prevention	“I don’t think I’ve ever really discussed flu prevention as something to pay specific attention to, with someone with asthma.” – Asthma “I cannot get the flu. I mean, I can’t get the flu, it’s dangerous for me, the flu will kill me, so I’m very careful. I get the flu shot, I wash my hands, I do all the stuff, avoid crowds, try not to fly, flight is the worst, contained spaces.” – COPD
Trigger exposure (eg, weather and air quality)	“I mean, I hear it on the radio, so I wouldn’t say that I don’t monitor it but I don’t do anything.” – COPD “If there’s a weather forecast, sometimes it will talk about pollen counts for seasonal allergies, it will talk about smog alerts, for people with respiratory issues [they] should stay home today. So, I, I do not seek those out but if it comes, if those kinds of warnings come with the weather I do pay attention to those.” – Asthma
Peak flow meter use	“If peak flow is bad, go see the doctor right away.” – Asthma “I used the thing that you blow into and it tells you how much you blow out. I had one of those for years.” – Asthma
Inhaler use	“For my understanding, there’s a bit of confusion whenever it comes to instructions on taking medication. It’s usually the pharmacist, because they ask you have you taken this before, and then, when I had a new form of inhaler or something that I had never used, they would demonstrate it. So yeah, I’ve never really had that.” – Asthma “Okay. Um, those [inhaler use] were good questions.” – Asthma
Lifestyle (eg, healthy eating and exercise)	“I don’t know that I would talk about diet, and mentioned exercise but not in specifics about I want to do this, so can we come up with a plan for me to be able to stabilize me being active?” – Asthma “If a person wants to make a lifestyle change, they have to put in the effort. The person has to really commit to that.” – Asthma