Effects Of Self-Management Behaviors Intervention Of School-Age Children With Asthma

Background:Evidences demonstrated that the chronic course of asthma has great impact on children, most of them suffer from breathing difficulties, chest tightness, coughing and other symptoms; about 25%of children with severe asthma have emotional problems; also they can become a financial burden to family. The physical, psychological and economic impact on the families and community has attracted great attention. Studies in other countries have showed that the self-management behaviors intervention can improve the health status of children with asthma.Objective:To explore the effects of the self-management behaviors intervention on self-management knowledge, behaviors, health status of children with asthma.Methods:A quasi-experimental study was used in the study. A convenient sample of ninety children aged 10-14 from a hospital in Beijing were enrolled. They were divided into two random groups, one is intervention group and the other is control group. The intervention group was given guidance one-by-one, provided the manual "self-management behaviors of school-age children", the children wrote written action plan everyday and accepted telephone guidance for three months. The control group was given normal out-patient treatment and care. Self-management knowledge, self-management behaviors, health status of children with asthma were collected at three points:before and after intervention, third month after intervention with questionnaires which were designed by researcher.Results:Seventy-eight subjects were completed data collection,40 subjects in intervention group and 38 subjects in control group. (1)The average score of the self-management knowledge of the objects was 16.85±3.86 (the score range from 0-25). Compared with baseline data, the knowledge score of the intervention group increased significantly after intervention and third month after intervention(P<0.05), and compared two groups, the intervention group scores were higher than those of the control group(P<0.05). After intervention, the knowledge score of the control group increased significantly comparing with baseline(P<0.05). (2) The average score of the self-management behaviors of the objects was 2.47±0.48 (the score range from 0-4). Compared with baseline data, the behaviors score of the intervention group increased significantly after intervention and third month after intervention(P<0.05). Compared two groups, the scores of intervention group were higher than those of control group(P<0.05), But the behaviors score of the control group didn't show significant difference among three points(P>0.05). (3) Compared indices of health status between two groups after intervention, the intervention group were better in the day symptoms, the score of asthma control test, the number of attacks and missing school days than the control group(P<0.05).Conclusions:The self-management behaviors intervention of school-age children can improve self-management knowledge and behaviors. It can also improve the health status in which day symptom score decreased and the number of attacks decreased.