Online Asthma Self-Management for Children Aged 5-10 and Their Parents

Online Asthma Self-Management for Children Aged 5-10 and Their Parents

The potential benefits of this research to public health include improved understanding of cultural factors in pediatric asthma self-management, improved self-management skills for children, and better asthma management skills for their parents. This could result in eased suffering and improved quality of life for millions of children and their families, and also reduce the economic burden borne by society in the forms of medical expenditures and lost productivity.

This proposal will create an interactive multimedia (IMM) program designed to support the self-management efforts of asthmatic children aged 5-10 years and their families. This behavior change program will be designed to promote self-management by (a) increasing child and caregiver knowledge about asthma, (b) encouraging compliance with medication protocols and environmental controls, and (c) increasing self-efficacy to create and implement an Asthma Action Plan.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children aged 5-10 with physican-diagnosed asthma and who had been prescribed any type of asthma medication, and one of their parents or primary caregivers. Parents and children needed to have access to an internet- and video-capable computer, and the parent needed to have a valid e-mail address in order to receive study-related correspondence.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Only English-speaking participants were accepted because the program was developed only for English speakers. Children less than 5 years of age and older than 10 were excluded because the program is developed targeted to the developmental abilities and interests of children aged 5-10. There were no exclusions based on race/ethnicity.