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School-based asthma program decreased urgent care utilization

ORLANDO, Fla. — Implementing a joint school- and home-based asthma program significantly enhanced asthmatic children’s activity-related quality of life and decreased their need for urgent care utilization, according to data presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology 2012 Annual Meeting.

While asthma education programs, such as the American Lung Association’s Open Airway for Schools (OAS), improve asthma control and prevent exacerbations, these programs are not often readily available to populations at risk for health disparities. To determine the effect of the Step-Up Asthma Program in the Denver Public Schools, researchers enrolled eight urban public elementary schools at-risk for health disparities and high asthma prevalence.

In the randomized, controlled study of asthmatic students — including 49 intervention and 41 control — in grades 3 through 6 completed pre- and post-assessments of health risk, asthma control test, asthma knowledge, quality of life, spirometry and inhaler technique.

According to the study results, only four of 22 qualifying schools received intervention and 49 students were recruited; approximately 32% to 64% of the eligible asthmatics enrolled at these schools. Each of the participating schools completed the study, with 88% of intervention students completing at least five of the six required sessions. Researchers observed significant improvements in both asthma knowledge scores (17 ± 1.9 to 20.9 ± 2.5) and metered dose aerosol inhaler techniques (P<.001).

 

Summer E. Monforte

“The biggest lesson that we have learned from this study is that educating children about their asthma can make a significant difference in even a short period of time,” Summer E. Monforte, MD, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “Our study was only a 3-month intervention study and in that time children increased their ability to take their medications correctly, their activity-related quality of life increased, demonstrated a 10% increase in their knowledge scores about their own asthma, and exhibited an enormous drop in urgent care utilization.”

The asthma program also experienced implementation barriers during the study, including irregular school schedules, absenteeism, program implementation during standardized testing and occasional disruptive student behavior.

“This is a great program because it uses a student- and caregiver-based intervention with information and available materials,” Monforte said. “Getting into the school and home environment and ensuring that these children know what is happening with their own bodies can really make a tremendous difference.” —by Bob Stott

For more information:

• Monforte SE. #156. Reducing Health Disparities For Asthma With a School Based Asthma Education Program. Presented at: the 2012 AAAAI Annual Meeting; March 2-6, 2012; Orlando, Fla.

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