Novel Approach to Self Management of Asthma in Children

Asthma represents one of the most important chronic diseases of childhood in terms of itsimpact of normal childhood development as well as expense to parents and the health care system. Selfmanagement is seen as an integral part of the care of asthma, and novel methods to reach children areneeded. This proposal taps the talents of a group of professional artists and writers with a long timeexperience in both educational and entertainment industry who will develop, with guidance from a groupof experienced asthma specialists, an attractive educational comic book on asthma management. Theinformation contained in the publication will provide children aged 7 to 12 with information to helpprevent and control exacerbations of their disease. To evaluate the success of this publication childrenwith and without asthma will be assessed by small group interviews to judge the comprehension andacceptability of the material. Following distribution of the publication, acceptability and knowledgegained will be assessed by parental questionnaire and efforts to assess reported changes in the homesof children with asthma. This effort is looked upon as Phase I project that will lead to the developmentof an 18-24 minute video that can be used both in health care provider settings or, for nominal cost, inthe child's individual video at home.