BACKGROUND:
Pediatric asthma is a well-documented public health issue in the United States. The impact of pediatric asthma can be measured by both health care costs and morbidity. Whereas many factors contribute to the high health care costs of asthma, much of the morbidity can be directly attributed to lack of adherence to medical treatments. The consequence of non-adherence for most individuals with ashtma is exacerbations. Greater numbers of exacerbations lead to increased school absenteeism, greater activity limitations, decreased quality of life for both parent and child, increased urgent health care use and costs, and increased parental days missed at work. Therefore, adherence to treatment is essential for proper asthma management and ultimate reductions in morbidity.
Asthma morbidity, as measured by the number of exacerbations, is largely preventable with patient education and optimal treatment. However, it has been demonstrated that patient education alone is insufficient to decrease asthma morbidity. Optimal treatment is essential to control asthma morbidity. Inhaled corticosteroids offer considerable protection against asthma exacerbations. However, only a minority of asthma patients take their inhaled steroids as recommended by the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) guidelines. Therefore, the Pediatric Asthma Guidelines recommend development and testing of programs (including school-based programs) to increase adherence with therapy.
Because morbidity is higher in inner-city, low-income, minority children, this study will collaborate with several inner-city, low-income, minority school districts to examine the effects of school-based supervised asthma therapy.
DESIGN NARRATIVE:
This study is a longitudinal two-group trial of the effectiveness of a school-based supervised asthma therapy program. Two hundred and fifty children will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: school-based supervised asthma therapy or parental supervised asthma therapy. The children will be followed for 16 months.
