Initiative increases asthma control in teenagers

Teenagers are the worst age group when it comes to controlling their asthma symptoms.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children, with seven million kids across the United States suffering from the disease. According to experts, asthma results in 10.5 million missed school days, 640,000 emergency room visits and 157,000 hospitalizations each year. Childhood asthma rates in Ohio and Kentucky are the highest in the entire nation. Researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have carried out what they believe to be the first initiative conducted exclusively among teenagers that shows significant improvement in their asthma outcomes.

According to the study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, teenagers are the worst age group when it comes to adhering to asthma guidelines. Because of this, it is often more difficult to treat asthma in teenagers and the various outcomes are much worse than those experienced by younger age groups, who are more likely to follow instructions. This is what led to the creation of the study, because lead researcher Dr. Mario Britto wanted to help all teenagers improve in controlling and treating their asthma.

From 2007 to 2011, Britto and her colleagues at the Children’s Hospital focused their asthma improvement efforts on just over 300 primary care patients who all had asthma. They found that only 10 percent of the teens had well-controlled asthma. To combat this problem, Dr. Britto developed a package of chronic care interventions. This package included self-management support – such as monitoring their progress by keeping a journal, creating personal action plans and linking teens to community resources. By August 2009 the number of teens who had well-controlled asthma increased to over 30 percent, and has remained at this level ever since.

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