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Children with asthma and nebulizer use: parental asthma self-care practices and beliefs
A M Butz1, P Eggleston, K Huss
1School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21287-3144, USA. Abutz@jhmi.edu
Insights
Inner-city children with asthma experience significant morbidity. Despite needing daily anti-inflammatory (AI) medications, few children actually take them, highlighting a gap in asthma self-management.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Pulmonology
- Public Health
- Asthma Management
Background:
- Inner-city children with asthma often face significant health challenges.
- Nebulizer use is common in this population, yet optimal anti-inflammatory (AI) therapy is frequently underutilized.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate asthma morbidity, medication use, and self-management practices in inner-city children using nebulizers.
- To explore the relationship between self-management beliefs and the use of AI therapy.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study examining demographic data, medication adherence, and asthma-related symptoms.
- Surveys assessed asthma self-management practices and parental beliefs regarding daily medication use.
Main Results:
- High rates of asthma morbidity were observed, including frequent emergency visits, hospitalizations, and school absences.
- Over 81% of children had symptoms indicating persistent asthma requiring AI medication, yet only about 14% reported taking AI medications daily.
- Parents of children on daily AI therapy were more likely to believe in consistent medication use, even without current symptoms.
Conclusions:
- A significant gap exists in the appropriate use of anti-inflammatory (AI) medications for inner-city children with persistent asthma.
- Asthma self-management education and addressing parental beliefs are crucial for improving adherence to AI therapy and reducing childhood asthma morbidity.
Abstract:
We examined demographic characteristics, patterns of medication use, asthma morbidity, and asthma self-management practices and beliefs among inner-city children currently using a nebulizer. We also describe the relationship between asthma self-management practices and beliefs and anti-inflammatory (AI) therapy. We observed a high rate of morbidity, including frequent emergency room visits, hospitalizations, symptom days and nights, and school absences in this group of school-aged children with asthma. More than three-quarters (81%) reported asthma symptoms consistent with mild persistent or greater severity of asthma, and therefore these subjects should be taking AI medications. Another 16% (36 of 231) of these children reported symptoms consistent with mild intermittent asthma. Only 1 out of 7 children in this study reported taking AI medications. We found that parents of children taking daily AI medications were more likely to agree with the belief that children should use asthma medications daily even when the child is not reporting any symptoms.