185977 Improvement in asthma knowledge among Latino families enrolled in a bilingual community-based asthma program: The Children's RESPIRA Education Program

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 5:15 PM

Christopher P. Tuohy , Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ
Barbara M. Suarez, MD , Department of Pediatrics, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ
Stanley H. Weiss, MD, FACP, FACE , Department of Preventive Medicine & Community Health / Epidemiology, UMDNJ - New Jersey Medical School & New Jersey School of Public Health, Newark, NJ
Daniel M. Rosenblum, PhD , Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ
Evelyn Montalvo Stanton, MD , Department of Pediatrics, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ
Our clinical experience indicated that many Latino families with children with asthma weren't adequately aware of how to manage their children's asthma. A bilingual asthma education program was developed featuring separate educational sessions for parents and children conducted in Spanish or English (dictated by needs), followed by home visits about three and nine weeks afterwards.

Program assessment includes surveys measuring asthma knowledge of adults (second survey added July 2007), adolescents ≥ 12, and children 6-11 (none for < 6), each administered four times (before/after educational session, at each follow-up visit).

During the 14 months of the program, 166 families and a total of 201 children enrolled. 99.6% of participants answered all appropriate questionnaires.

At program completion, 99 parents (83%) would give rescue medication and call a doctor if their child had new asthma symptoms, whereas at intake only 54 (45%) would (p<0.0001) with 28 (23%) going directly to the ER.

Asthma knowledge on pre- and post-surveys was compared (paired t-test, 2-tailed; incomplete surveys excluded). Improvement in knowledge occurred in each age group: adult survey 1 (n=155) p<0.0001; adult survey 2 (n=40) p<0.0001; 6-11 (n=76) p<0.0001; ≥ 12 (n=21) p < 0.05.

For families (n=125) with a 1st home visit and all 3 survey 1's complete, mean score on the post-test remained steady with minor variations. At 2nd follow-up, adults showed further improvement on survey 1 (n=112, p<0.0001) and children remained stable. Children showed similar maintenance of knowledge gains at follow-ups. Thus, improvements of both children's and parent's knowledge were sustained.

Learning Objectives:
Recognize that significant increases in asthma knowledge can be achieved in families with children with asthma as a result of a short-term educational and clinical intervention in an urban setting. Understand the importance of tailoring a program such as this to the target community, for example presenting medically relevant information in the language preferred by participants. Recognize the importance of follow-up with families with respect to the retention of, and continued improvement in, asthma knowledge. Recognize that inner city families can learn to change their approach to asthma management which can impact upon healthcare resource utilization, such as decreased reliance upon the emergency room as a first step when dealing with an acute asthma exacerbation.

Keywords: Asthma, Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a graduate student nearing completion of my Master of Public Health degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) - School of Public Health with a concentration in quantitative methods. I have been working on this project with Dr. Stanley H. Weiss, a full professor in the UMDNJ - NJ Medical School Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health and in the UMDNJ – School of Public Health. Dr. Weiss developed the evaluation component and all study forms for this program and has helped to direct all study aspects since its inception. I have been directly involved in all aspects of this study since August, 2007. I have performed the statistical analysis interpretations and am responsible for the writing of this abstract. My qualifications include training in biostatistics and disease epidemiology related to my graduate course work as well as knowledge and experienced gained under the guidance of Dr. Weiss. If accepted, I will present this work. This would be my first presentation at any medical or public health scientific meeting.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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