Asthma, the most common pediatric chronic illness, has high prevalence and morbidity among adolescents. Despite this, there are few interventions for high school students, and none have been tested when delivered by Community Health Workers (CHWs) or in rural areas. This represents a significant limitation because the CHW model has been shown to be successful in clinic- and home-based interventions. Also, rural adolescents with asthma represent a very large population. Given the high prevalence of asthma in this group, this oversight is a significant public health concern. Cost effectiveness analyses and implementation research are also lacking in asthma intervention research. This study addresses these treatment and methodological gaps. The investigators developed and established the efficacy of Asthma Self-Management for Adolescents (ASMA), an 8-week, high school-based intervention, in urban Hispanic and African American adolescents.
