Implementation of an asthma intervention in the inner city.
BACKGROUND
Despite availability of asthma self-management interventions for children, few have been implemented in community-based settings.


OBJECTIVE
To describe implementation of the Inner-City Asthma Intervention and factors associated with higher rates of program completion by enrollees.


METHODS
Descriptive analyses of data from multiple data sources. Two-tailed Pearson correlation coefficients and analyses of variance were used to calculate associations of descriptive variables with the retention rate (percentage of enrolled children who completed the core intervention and had more than 1 follow-up visit) and with the percentage who had allergy testing done.


RESULTS
A total of 4,174 children were enrolled at 22 sites; 2,153 (52%) completed the core intervention and had more than 1 follow-up visit. A total of 2,014 enrolled children (48%) were tested for allergies. Retention was related to type and location of site, ease of obtaining written plans, language and ethnicity of asthma counselor, and on-site allergy testing. Higher rates of allergy testing were associated with the same factors, as well as flexibility in scheduling and selective enrollment of participants.


CONCLUSIONS
Inner-city children with asthma can be enrolled in the Inner-City Asthma Intervention outside a controlled research setting. However, completion of all intervention components is difficult to achieve. We identify having an asthma counselor who is representative of the community, access to asthma action plans, and on-site allergy testing as factors that facilitate the implementation of this intervention in community-based settings.
Wood
Pamela
P
Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900, USA. woodp@uthscsa.edu
Tumiel-Berhalter
Laurene
L
Owen
Steven
S
Taylor
Kimberly
K
Kattan
Meyer
M
D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D019090:Case Management; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003376:Counseling; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006078:Government Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D018579:Patient Selection; D012947:Social Work; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014504:Urban Health