Impact of a Self-Management Education on Health Outcomes and Quality of Life in Child Asthma

摘要

According to the National Center for Health Statistics (2001) in 1998, 3.8 million children aged 0-17 years had an asthmatic episode. Nationally the asthma population is 6.3%. Arizona has exceeded the national asthma rates for 1991-1998 with an incidence of approximately 7% of the population. Asthmatic children require self-management instruction about asthma, medications, symptoms, and proper self-management. Poor self-management results from a lack of competence over asthma related self-management skills. This study defined self-management skill as those skills an asthmatic must have for competence in management. The purpose of this study was to test a self- management education program designed to enhance the self-management skill of inner city children with asthma in order to improve their health outcomes and quality of life. Measurement of effect in health outcomes and quality of life (QOL) were the indicators of competency in self-management skill. The pediatric asthma-specific questionnaire by Juniper and Guyatt (2001) examines QOL. Thurber and Blue (1994) developed the Asthma Self-care questionnaire to measure health outcomes. The pilot study design utilized a quasi-experimental design with pretest/posttest and non random assignment of subjects measured the differences in health outcomes and QOL of asthmatic children. Data collection was at three inner city Phoenix public schools. The analysis examined the * independent variable influence of self-management education on the dependent variable impact on quality of life and health outcomes.