Department of Health Sciences Faculty Articles

Title

Predicting Asthma Morbidity at Three Month Follow-Up Among Low-Income African American Children With Severe Persistent Asthma

ISBN or ISSN

0091-6749

Volume

115

Issue

2

Publication Date / Copyright Date

2-2005

First Page

S113

Publisher

Mosby, Inc.

DOI Number

10.1016/j.jaci.2004.12.465

Abstract

RATIONALE: This study examines predicators of asthma morbidity among a sample of low-income children with severe persistent asthma.

METHODS: Eighty-one children ages 6-11 were recruited from an urban pediatric hospital. Adherence to Flovent was measured by electronic monitoring devices over 14 days. Caregivers and children were then interviewed about child depressive symptoms and behavior problems, child asthma symptoms, caregiver depressive symptoms, and social support. Three months later caregivers were interviewed about their child's asthma morbidity.

RESULTS: Caregivers reported a mean score of 1.1 (baseline) and 1.3 (3 months) on an asthma symptom measure, corresponding to a few days of symptoms. At 3 months they reported a mean of 3.8 asthma symptom days (over 2 weeks) and 1.8 days missed from school (over 3 months). Steroid bursts or ED visits over 3 months were reported by a quarter of the sample.

Asthma morbidity indices at 3 months were related to asthma symptoms at baseline. The number of asthma symptom days at 3 months was significantly and positively correlated with caregiver report of the child's depressive symptoms at baseline. Flovent adherence and other psychosocial variables were not related to any of the morbidity indices.

CONCLUSIONS: Asthma morbidity at follow up was primarily associated with morbidity at baseline, and not with adherence or most psychosocial variables. As data collection is underway, our analyses will be conducted on a larger sample to further investigate the role of psychosocial variables and adherence in predicting asthma morbidity.

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

Keywords

Asthma Morbidity, Asthma, Low-Income, Children, Severe, Electronic Monitoring, Interview, Caregivers, Symptoms

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