Asthma education: the adolescent experience.
Recent studies show that prevalence of asthma is higher among adolescents than children. Adolescents have poor asthma self-management skills resulting in a significant increase in the severity of asthma exacerbations and a reduction in their quality of life. Despite this, few self-management programs have been developed for adolescents. Adolescents experience developmental transitions that both hinder and facilitate asthma self-management. In this paper we discuss developmental transitions in cognition, knowledge, autonomy, identity development, and peer relations in terms of their influence on adolescents' management of asthma. Next, we describe the Asthma Self-Management for Adolescents (ASMA) program that incorporates developmental characteristics into an age-appropriate school-based asthma education program. Preliminary data is presented indicating that the program is successful in enrolling and engaging the interest of adolescents with persistent asthma.
Bruzzese
Jean-Marie
JM
New York University Child Study Center, 215 Lexington Avenue, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA. jeanmarie.ruzzese@med.nyu.edu
Bonner
Sebastian
S
Vincent
Elisa J
EJ
Sheares
Beverley J
BJ
Mellins
Robert B
RB
Levison
Moshe J
MJ
Wiesemann
Sandra
S
Du
Yunling
Y
Zimmerman
Barry J
BJ
Evans
David
D
D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D009519:New York City; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010379:Peer Group; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012648:Self Care; D012933:Social Identification