Tailored Education to Increase Self-Efficacy for Caregivers of Children With Asthma: A Randomized Controlled Trial

We examined the efficacy of a tailored education program using touch-screen computers for caregivers of young children with asthma, aged 0 to 6 years. Fifty-three caregivers (mean age, 36.54 years; 51 mothers and two fathers) were recruited during typical visits to a national children's hospital. Caregivers were assigned randomly to 28 in the tailored education or 25 in the booklet education groups. The tailored education group received messages generated by a computer program, and the researchers provided them with counseling. The booklet education group only received an educational booklet. The primary outcome variable was parental self-efficacy and its subscales (ie, medication behavior, environmental behavior, barriers to self-management, and consultation behavior). The tailored education group showed an increase in barriers to management and asthma knowledge compared with the booklet education group. Over time, caregivers' quality of life improved significantly in both groups. Tailored education programs for caregivers of asthmatic children require further educational content modifications to match the learners' characteristics more closely. This study supports the notion that the development of patient education with tailored computer programs improves parental quality of life of asthma.