Evaluation of a family asthma program

This article presents the results of an evaluation of a 12-hour patient education program for children with asthma and their parents. Ninety-two of 147 participants (63%) completed the 1-year follow-up. The effectiveness of the family asthma program (FAP) was measured by a “knowledge of asthma” questionnaire administered before and at the last session; it demonstrated a significant improvement for parents ( p < 0.001) and children ( p < 0.01). The “multidimensional health locus of control scales” (administered to a subgroup of 42 adults and 29 children before and 3 mo after the FAP) demonstrated a significant change in attitude toward asthma for both parents ( p < 0.05) and children ( p < 0.005), indicating an interest to assume more responsibility for self-management. In addition, eight variables were measured in the children before the FAP was started and longitudinally on a monthly basis for 1 yr after completion of the FAP. Three of these variables demonstrated a significant change: total activities were increased ( p < 0.001), unscheduled health-care visits were decreased ( p < 0.005), and school absences were decreased ( p < 0.005). Four variables did not reach statistical significance but did change in the expected direction: medication score, 10% decrease; emergency treatments, 24% decrease; hospital admissions, 44% decrease; school activities, 5% increase. These results demonstrate that this FAP effectively complemented medical care and provided a useful preparation for self-management.