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Asthma education material for children and their families; a global survey of current resources
Mark L Everard1, Ulrich Wahn2, Sofia Dorsano3
1School of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Western Australia, TelethonKids Institute, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, Roberts Road, Subiaco, 6008, Western, Australia.
Insights
High-quality pediatric asthma care requires age-appropriate information. A global survey revealed significant disparities in available educational materials for children with asthma, highlighting the need for a universal, translatable dataset.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Allergy and Immunology
- Respiratory Medicine
- Health Communication
Background:
- Effective pediatric asthma management hinges on providing age-appropriate educational resources.
- Global accessibility of such information is crucial for consistent patient care.
- The World Allergy Organization (WAO) aims to improve asthma education worldwide.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the availability of existing asthma educational materials for children and families globally.
- To explore the feasibility of creating a minimum dataset for translation and worldwide distribution.
- To identify disparities in educational resource accessibility among different countries.
Main Methods:
- A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed via Survey Monkey.
- The survey targeted 263 representatives from WAO member societies across 95 countries in 2014.
- Data analysis focused on responses from 33 participants representing 31 countries.
Main Results:
- A significant disparity in the availability of asthma educational materials was observed.
- Some countries reported readily available hard copy and online resources.
- Other countries reported a notable lack of suitable local educational materials.
Conclusions:
- There is a clear need for a standardized, core set of asthma information.
- This information should be simple, clear, age-appropriate, and easily translatable.
- Developing culturally and educationally effective formats is essential for global implementation.
Abstract:
One of the keys to high quality paediatric asthma management is the provision of age appropriate information regarding the disease and its management. In order to determine whether the generation of a minimum dataset of information which can be translated into a wide range of languages might be used to assist children and their parents around the world, we undertook a survey of national Member Societies of the World Allergy Organization (WAO) to determine what educational material on asthma for children and their families already exists. A questionnaire was developed using Survey Monkey and distributed in 2014 to 263 representatives of the WAO member Societies from 95 countries. Thirty-three replies were received from thirty-one countries. The survey highlighted a considerable disparity in availability of material among the responding countries, with some countries reporting that information was freely available in hard copy and online and others reporting a lack of suitable material locally. The results highlight the need to develop a core set of simple, clear and consistent age appropriate information that can be easily translated and delivered in a cultural and educationally effective format.
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