Use of interactive videoconferencing to deliver asthma education to inner-city immigrants

Videoconferencing to deliver asthma health education to patients or their parents has not been widely used in the USA. We used two 90 min interactive videoconferences to deliver an asthma education programme to a convenience sample of mainly Latino immigrant parents in the Bronx, New York. In these sessions short presentations were given on asthma triggers, medications and the prevention of asthma exacerbations. To test gains in knowledge, we administered a self-completion questionnaire consisting of true/false statements before and after the videoconferences. Sixty subjects participated in the first videoconference and 56 in the second. Asthma knowledge improved significantly after both. Three months later, knowledge retention from the first videoconference was good. The majority of subjects asked questions and commented on their personal experiences of asthma. Interactive videoconferencing allowed asthma education to be delivered to a large immigrant population, elicited concerns from the audience and was effective in improving knowledge.