Improving Asthma Management Through a School-Based Asthma Education Program

Abstract

Background: Asthma is the leading cause of chronic illness among children in the United States and efforts to improve care and control are of concern. Evidence suggest that children with asthma who participated in an interactive, comprehensive education program can improve their asthma knowledge, self-management skills and overall quality of life. Purpose: The purpose of this scholarly project was to determine if a school-based asthma educational program, Open Airways for Schools (OAS) increases knowledge of asthma and self care management skills among elementary school children. Methods: A convenience sample of 14 school children was recruited to participate in the OAS program. The project entailed six 45-minute educational classes based on the asthma management program called Open Airways For Schools (OAS). Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to determine if there was a difference in rank of the scores following the intervention and a McNemar test was used to estimate a change in proportion of the students demonstrating correct medication administration following the educational intervention. Results: Two of the six questions were statistically significant between pre-and post-test scores and two of the four questions were statistically significant in demonstrating a change in knowledge. All four questions targeted at skills competency were statistically significant in demonstrating an improvement in performance of correct technique following the intervention. Implications: The educational intervention results support that children benefit from an asthma educational program and offers an effective way to improve asthma knowledge, self-confidence and self-care practices. The school environment provides an excellent foundation and offers many advantages over the traditional clinic-based setting for identifying children with asthma as well as delivering asthma education.