Parental instruction regarding appropriate asthma management

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if those children whose parents received instruction regarding appropriate asthma management actually experienced improvement in terms of fewer asthmatic attacks, fewer emergency room visits, fewer hospitalizations, less school absenteeism, use of more non-routine medication, and fewer phone calls to the emergency room and the physician's office than those children whose parents did not receive the instruction. A secondary purpose was to determine if mothers who received the instruction would score higher on a knowledge posttest than those mothers who did not receive the instruction. It was hypothesized that: (1) the mothers who received the instruction regarding appropriate asthma management would score higher on a knowledge posttest;· and (2) those children whose mothers received the education would have fewer asthma attacks, fewer emergency room visits, fewer hospitalizations, less school absences, and fewer phone calls to the emergency room and physician's office than those mothers who did not receive the instruction. Thirty-two families participated in this experimental study based on a Solomon four-group design. Two groups (experimental) received the instruction at the onset of the study and two groups (control) received it after completion of the study. Eight dependent variables were assessed for differences among group means. The first two variables, the pre- and posttest, measured the effect of testing and treatment. Knowledge gain was assessed and reliability of the test instrument for this study was determined. The remaining six dependent variables were scored on monthly diaries, maintained daily by the mothers for three months. These variables included: asthma attacks, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, school absences, non-routine medication, and phone calls to the emergency room and physician's office. There were no significant differences among group means on any of the variables. The results demonstrated the need to conduct the study with a larger sample over a longer period of time. The content included in the instructional module should be assessed more comprehensively by the knowledge test. The lack of significant difference in pretest and posttest scores most likely is a function of the content of the test and does not reflect accurately the learning that occurred.