Evaluation of a family asthma program

This article presents the results of an evaluation of a 12-hour patient education program for children with asthma and their parents. Ninety-two of 147 participants (63%) completed the 1-year follow-up. The effectiveness of the family asthma program (FAP) was measured by a "knowledge of asthma" questionnaire administered before and at the last session; it demonstrated a significant improvement for parents (p less than 0.001) and children (p less than 0.01). The "multidimensional health locus of control scales" (administered to a subgroup of 42 adults and 29 children before and 3 mo after the FAP) demonstrated a significant change in attitude toward asthma for both parents (p less than 0.05) and children (p less than 0.005), indicating an interest to assume more responsibility for self-management. In addition, eight variables were measured in the children before the FAP was started and longitudinally on a monthly basis for 1 yr after completion of the FAP. Three of these variables demonstrated a significant change: total activities were increased (p less than 0.001), unscheduled health-care visits were decreased (p less than 0.005), and school absences were decreased (p less than 0.005). Four variables did not reach statistical significance but did change in the expected direction: medication score, 10% decrease; emergency treatments, 24% decrease; hospital admissions, 44% decrease; school activities, 5% increase. These results demonstrate that this FAP effectively complemented medical care and provided a useful preparation for self-management.