Assessing the impact of a family empowerment program on asthma control and medication use in children with asthma: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Purpose In pediatric asthma, family empowerment education has been beneficial for the quality of life, pulmonary function, and family functioning. Few studies addressed the impact of a family empowerment program on asthma symptom control, acute healthcare use (AHCU), and medication use in children with asthma. This study aimed to assess the effect of a family empowerment intervention on asthma symptom control, AHCU, inhaler technique, and controller adherence in children with asthma. Design and Methods A single‐center study using a randomized controlled design was conducted in a university hospital in the center of Tunisia from May 2018 to September 2019. Eighty‐two families were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 41) of 8 weeks of group training sessions, or to the control group (n = 41) of usual care education. Thirty‐seven families in the intervention group and 39 families in the control group received allocated intervention at baseline. Thirty‐four families in each group completed the study at the 12‐month follow‐up. Results At baseline, the intervention and control groups were statistically comparable (p > .05). At follow‐up, there were significant differences between the intervention and the control group in asthma symptom control, χ2 (1, N = 34) = 9.950, p = .002, and inhalation technique, χ2 (1, N = 34) = 5.916, p = .01. For AHCU and adherence to asthma controller, there was no significant difference between groups, χ2 (1, N = 34) = 3.219, p = .07, χ2 (1, N = 34) = 0.541, p = .46, respectively. The difference within time in asthma symptom control and inhalation technique was significant (p = 10−3, p = .001; respectively). Practice Implications This study demonstrated that a family empowerment program significantly improved asthma symptom control and inhaler technique in children with asthma aged 7–17 years. This intervention could be clinically useful and time‐saving for pediatric nurses.

Effect of Family Education on Clinical Outcomes in Children with Asthma: A Review

“…After a 12-month follow-up, the number of unscheduled doctors and ED visits due to asthma was reduced in the experimental and the control group. However, three child-parent education programs did not show a significant difference in ED visits and hospitalizations between the intervention and the control group at follow-up [19,20,26].…”

“…It was demonstrated that family education contributed to a significant decrease in asthma symptoms days and nights [15,18,20]. Indeed, family empowerment interventions were significantly effective in reducing asthma symptoms, such as coughing, wheezing, and dyspnea (p < .0001) [21], and improving asthma symptom control in school-age children (p < .001) [22,26,27]. Besides, the m-Health program of Montalbano et al was effective in improving the Child-Asthma Control Test scores (p = .0089) in the intervention group [24].…”

“…Besides, Celano et al showed that, at follow-up, a greater proportion of children who received a home-based family intervention demonstrated adequate technique as compared to children in the usual care group (84%; 44%; p = .019 respectively) [15]. A recent RCT showed that a six-month family empowerment intervention improved inhalation techniques in children with asthma [26]. However, the same intervention was not effective in enhancing medication adherence.…”

The Effect of Family-centered Care Model on Sleep Quality and Medication Compliance of Children With Simple Congenital Heart Disease After Transcatheter Intervention

“…Studies have pointed out that the FCC can help improve children's awareness of the disease, reduce their shame, and effectively improve their medication compliance. 19 In the nal analysis, the level of medication compliance is still a behavioral problem. If the parents of children with higher self-management ability and self-discipline ability, the children may have higher medication compliance.…”

Effect of colostomy empowerment program for mothers on occurrence of peristomal skin complications among their infants

“…Growing evidence supports family empowerment interventions which is based on the family-centered nursing care philosophy. Empowerment education is a process planned to help patients and families develop the attitudes, knowledge, skills and degree of self-awareness necessary to simulate responsibility for their health-related decisions (Dardouri et al, 2021). So far, the family empowerment is used in parents of children with chronic diseases such as thalassemia, disabilities, asthma, ostomy, and psychological problems.…”