A School Health Education Program for Children with Asthma Aged 8-11 Years

Abstract

It was hypothesized that a health education program for children with asthma aged 8-11 years that was delivered in elementary schools, would increase children's asthma management skills, self-efficacy and influence on parents' management decisions; reduce school absences and improve school performance. The study population consisted of 239 low-income, predominantly Hispanic and black children from 12 elementary schools (six experimental and six control) in New York City. Parents did not attend educational sessions but received written materials. The program emphasized the child's responsibility for recognizing symptoms and taking appropriate management steps. Follow-up data obtained one year after the program showed that compared to controls experimental group children had higher scores on an index of asthma management (p less than 0.05), greater self-efficacy with respect to asthma management skills (p less than 0.05), more influence on parents' asthma management decisions (p less than 0.05), better grades in school (p = 0.05), and fewer episodes of asthma (p less than 0.01) of shorter average duration (p less than 0.01). No differences were observed for changes in number of school absences. These findings show that asthma health education designed for delivery to children can significantly increase management skills, reduce symptoms of asthma, and improve school performance.

Status of Childhood Asthma in the United States, 1980–2007

“…72 Open Airways for Schools has been shown to increase school performance and self-management behaviors and to decrease the number of asthma episodes. 73 CONCLUSIONS Analysis of the current burden of childhood asthma yields a mixture of positive and negative findings. Prevalence trends have plateaued and asthma-related death rates have decreased.…”

Effectiveness of Educational and Behavioral Asthma Interventions

“…Evans et al 17 provided comprehensive asthma selfmanagement education for children in low-income, minority, elementary schools; subsequently, children in the treatment schools experienced significantly fewer 20 (2001) 272 Peer education on asthma management Improved quality of life and reduction in absenteeism Guo et al 21 (2005) 273 School-based asthma clinic Reductions in hospital and emergency department visits and care costs Tinkelman and Schwartz 18 (2004) 41 Asthma self-management education Reductions in missed school days, unscheduled doctor visits, and symptoms Halterman et al 22 (2004) 180 Asthma medications provided at school Reductions in missed school days and symptoms Clark et al 19 (2004) 835 Comprehensive management education Reductions in symptoms in persistent group; better grades; fewer missed school days asthma symptoms, had fewer emergency department visits, and had better grades in school, compared with control subjects. In a smaller study, Tinkelman and Schwartz 18 also found positive results for school-based asthma education, that is, the children had fewer asthma symptoms, less absenteeism, and fewer unscheduled doctor visits.…”

“…17 First, asthma is still at an unacceptable level of prevalence. Second, the plateauing has not occurred in the low-income and minority communities that experience the greatest burden of disease.…”

A systematic review to examine the impact of psycho-educational interventions on health outcomes and costs in adults and children with difficult asthma

“…Two studies were published in the 1970s (Alexander, 1972, 363 Davis 382,383 ), eight in the 1980s (Alexander, 1988, 402 Backman, 385 Evans, 403 Gold, 418 Gustafsson, 419,420 McNabb, [412][413][414][415] Mitchell, 376 Westphal 410 ), 16 in the 1990s (Colland, 378 Collins, 407 Dahl, 381 Fisher, 408,409 Garrett, 404 Greineder, ). The breakdown of studies by decade of publication according to the main type of intervention evaluated is shown in Figure 4.…”