Family Approach to Managing Asthma in Early Teens
Condition: Asthma; Lung Diseases
MeSH terms: Asthma; Lung Diseases
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 3

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to test two asthma management programs: (a) a school-based
      curriculum to empower middle school students to manage their asthma and (b) a parent training
      curriculum to teach childrearing skills that support the youths' growing autonomy and need to
      self-manage their disease.
    

Detailed description: 
      BACKGROUND:

      Asthma is a public health problem with its prevalence and morbidity being significant in 11-
      to 14-year olds, particularly among ethnic minorities. Despite this, little has been done to
      intervene with this age group. This is surprising considering the success of asthma education
      programs for younger children. In addition, there are no reports of parenting training to
      help families manage asthma despite the significant influence parenting strategies have on
      the management of chronic illnesses.

      DESIGN NARRATIVE:

      The overall goal of this study is to test the efficacy of a program with two complementary
      components: (a) a school-based curriculum to empower middle school students to manage their
      asthma and (b) a parent training curriculum to teach childrearing skills that support the
      youths' growing autonomy and need to self-manage their disease. The specific aims are: (1) to
      implement screening to identify 6th - 8th grade students with persistent asthma; and (2) to
      provide health education and parent training to help children and parents manage asthma more
      effectively. The student program is based on Coping with Asthma at Home and at School, a
      successful program developed in Holland. The parent program is an adaptation of Thriving
      Teens, an effective parent training program developed by the investigators. Participants in
      this randomized control trial will be 384 children with asthma and their caregivers from 16
      New York City public schools serving low-income, ethnic minorities. It is hypothesized that
      students randomized to the intervention will have, relative to controls, improvements in
      three primary outcomes: (1) reduced symptom severity; (2) improved quality of life; and (3)
      better asthma management skills. Also, when compared to controls, intervention students will
      show improvement in the following secondary outcomes: (4) urgent health care utilization; (5)
      days with activity restriction; and (6) parent-child interactions. Caregivers and children
      will complete comprehensive surveys assessing these outcomes at baseline, and immediately and
      6- and 12-months after the intervention.
    

Intervention name(s): Asthma: It's a Family Affair!; Asthma and Stress Comparator
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Intervention families will receive a comprehensive program with two complementary components: (1) a school-based intervention to empower middle school students to manage their asthma and (2) parent training to teach their caregivers childrearing skills that support the youth's growing autonomy and need to self-manage their disease. The student component is comprised of 6, 60 minute group workshops; the caregiver component consists of 5, 90-minute group workshops.; Caregivers assigned to the Asthma and Stress Comparator group will receive a single educational workshop focusing on the developmental changes adolescents experience, how these changes may cause stress, and ways to cope with stress. The children will also participate in a single school-based session on similar topics. Both caregivers and students will learn basic asthma facts.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention