Parent-Youth Teamwork in Pediatric Asthma Management

Noncompliance with medication is a prevalent problem for pediatric asthma patients, particularly for pre-adolescents and adolescents. Families reportedly struggle with the transition of expecting adolescents to assume more independence and responsibility in asthma management. Parent-child collaborative management of pediatric chronic illness regimens has been related to better adherence to medical regimens and improved health outcome. This study has four aims. The first aim is to investigate the effectiveness of a low-intensity, behavioral intervention aimed at promoting parental involvement in children's asthma management, particularly in improving medication adherence. The second aim is to examine how the role of parental involvement changes across time and participation in a 5-month study. A third aim is to determine whether parent-adolescent conflict is changed by the intervention. The fourth aim is to evaluate whether participation in the treatment program is associated with improved health status (e.g., improved pulmonary function test results).

Established asthma patients (ages 9-15) will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: Treatment Intervention (TI), Asthma Education (AE), and Standard Care (SC). The TI and AE groups will receive four 30-minute treatment sessions every two weeks. The TI intervention will consist of strategies aimed at promoting parent-youth management in asthma management. The AE group will receive structured reviews of asthma educational materials typically given to asthma patients. SC participants will have no contact with researchers beyond that necessary to gather data. Data will be collected from all participants every two weeks for the first 8-weeks of study involvement and also about 3-months after the final treatment session. Outcome data will include objective measures of medication adherence, parental involvement in asthma, and health outcome.