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Use of community health workers with inner-city children who have asthma
A M Butz1, F J Malveaux, P Eggleston
1School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287.
Insights
Community health workers effectively gathered health data from inner-city children with asthma. They provided essential asthma education, improving home-based care and identifying key health challenges.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Pediatric Asthma Management
- Community Health Interventions
Background:
- Asthma disproportionately affects African-American inner-city children, leading to significant morbidity.
- Existing interventions require effective methods for data collection and patient education within this population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the efficacy of community health workers (CHWs) in collecting health, social, and environmental data from African-American children with asthma.
- To evaluate the role of CHWs in delivering basic asthma education to families in an inner-city setting.
Main Methods:
- A subset of 140 school-aged children with asthma participated in home visits conducted by trained CHWs.
- CHWs collected medical information and provided asthma education to families during these visits.
Main Results:
- Data revealed low adherence to inhaled steroid therapy and high use of beta-2 agonists.
- Frequent emergency room visits, reduced primary care utilization, and increased allergen/irritant exposure were noted.
- CHWs successfully obtained crucial medical information and delivered basic asthma education.
Conclusions:
- Trained community health workers are effective in gathering vital health information from inner-city families with asthmatic children.
- CHWs can successfully deliver foundational asthma education within the home environment, supporting intervention efforts.
Abstract:
Use of community health workers (CHWs) to obtain health, social, and environmental information from African-American inner-city children with asthma was one component of a larger intervention study designed to reduce morbidity in African-American children with asthma. A subset of 140 school-aged children with asthma was recruited and enrolled in a program to receive home visits by CHWs for the purposes of obtaining medical information and teaching basic asthma education to the families. Data obtained by the CHWs revealed low inhaled steroid use, high beta 2 agonist use, frequent emergency-room visits, decreased primary-care visits, and increased allergen and irritant exposure. Appropriately recruited and trained CHWs are effective in obtaining useful medical information from inner-city families with children with asthma and providing basic asthma education in the home.