Asthma Control Essay

Helping Children Gain Asthma Control: Bundled school-based Interventions. By Kimberly P. Toole, 2013.

The purpose of the study was to design a collaborative plan to improve asthma control in school-aged children.

The study design used in this study was cross-sectional study whereby, the school children were the population under study over a time interval of 2 years. The level of evidence comes directly from the data collected over the study period, level IV.

The number of subjects was 150 students over a two-year period.

-Half of the subjects received regular assessment and intervention from an RN whereas the other half did not.

-The specific bundled interventions for this project are an annual NP assessment at school using the Asthma

Control TestTM (ACT) to classify asthma control, prescribing controller medications if indicated, and developing a written AAP.
-The research found that a collaborative approach involving regular assessment of school-aged children helped in improving asthma control in the selected population by reducing asthma exacerbations at school and fewer ED visits.

-The research design was well suited for the study and the findings are quite reasonable and practical.

-The study is valid.

-Randomized biased minimized.

-Meaningful clinical significance with the collaborative plan.

Asthma control questionnaires in the management of asthma in children: A review by S voorend, Vaessen-Verberne, Jongste, J. et al, 2014.

The purpose of this study was to gather data to help in the management of asthma in children by use of questionnaires.

The study design of a case-control study was best suited for the particular case whereby, the study begins with researchers choosing a particular population and interviewed them about their experiences, the level of the evidence is level 4.

-Five hundred questionnaires were issued to the selected parents of asthmatic children for data collection purposes.

-The questionnaire has a recall period of 1-4 week.

The intervention expected from this study is the issuance of recommendations for asthma management to parents of children with asthma.

-The findings of this study were that parents with asthmatic children all experienced similar kinds of challenges but they had different responses.

-Asthma questionnaires have been shown useful in evaluating the efficacy of various therapeutic

interventions.

- The use of asthma questionnaires in daily practice and research potentially contributes to the standardized evaluation of children with asthma and helps to track asthma symptoms.
-The research was well articulated.

-The study is valid.

-This can be used as part of self-management strategies.

-Randomized biased minimized.

-Meaningful clinical significance with questionnaire.

Conclusion:
As compared with a strategy of regular assessment and interventions in school age children with asthma did significantly improve control of asthma and quality of life. A further improvement in asthma care may be achieved through improvement of adherence to guidelines by health care professionals. Therefore, implementation plans should be developed, which contain interactive and continuous education, including discussion of evidence, local consensus, feedback on performance and the making of personal and group learning plans.