Asthma management practices at home in young inner-city children.
Information on parental asthma management practices for young children is sparse. The objective of this article is to determine if specific caregiver asthma management practices for children were associated with children's asthma morbidity. Caregivers of 100 inner-city children diagnosed with persistent asthma and participating in an ongoing asthma intervention study were enrolled and interviewed to ascertain measures of asthma morbidity, medication use, health care use (acute and primary care), and asthma management practices. Overall, asthma morbidity was high with almost two thirds of caregivers reporting their child having one or more emergency department visits within the last 6 months and 63% receiving specialty care for their asthma. Appropriate medication use was reported predominantly as albuterol and inhaled steroids (78%). However, only 42% of caregivers reported administering asthma medicines when their child starts to cough and less than half (39%) reported having an asthma action plan. There were no significant differences by asthma severity level for any asthma management practice. In conclusion, caregivers lack knowledge regarding cough as an early asthma symptom. Caregivers should be encouraged to review asthma action plans with health care providers at each medical encounter.
Department of Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA. abutz@jhmi.edu
Arlene M
AM
Butz
Karen
K
Huss
Kim
K
Mudd
Michele
M
Donithan
Cynthia
C
Rand
Mary E
ME
Bollinger
D000328:Adult; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001249:Asthma / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D017028:Caregivers; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D010346:Patient Care Management / Q000379:methods; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population
D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents