Can older adult volunteers serve effectively to improve asthma management for children? Experience Corps Baltimore.
The present study was conducted to determine whether older adults can learn and retain information on asthma and play a role as community health workers to teach children about asthma. A total of 36 older adults and 28 students in grades K-6 participated. Pre-tests and post-tests were administered to participants. Improvement in older adult scores after training was significant (p = .001), and improvement persisted through the conclusion of teaching sessions (p = 0.001). The increase in lower student scores was significant (p = 0.050). Results suggest that older adults can learn and retain asthma information and schoolchildren can learn asthma-related information taught by older adults.
Reddy
Deepthi M
DM
Center on Aging and Health, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. dreddy1@gmail.com
Fried
Linda P
LP
Rand
Cynthia
C
McGill
Sylvia
S
Simpson
Crystal F
CF
D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D015142:Baltimore; D002648:Child; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014838:Volunteers / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology