A new study has found that a school-based asthma education program conducted in the Oakland, California school district was shown to reduce symptoms and increase the number of days that children who suffered from asthma were able to go to school.
The study will be published this month in the Journal of School Health.
Nearly 10% or 6.8 million children have asthma in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The problem is most prevalent in urban areas, where children's symptoms are typically worse. In light of this, some schools in urban areas have been grappling with how best to help children cope with this chronic disease. Asthma can be deadly if not managed properly.
"This study demonstrates how schools can play an important role in the health and safety of children and adolescents coping with asthma," said Sheryl Magzamen, Ph.D., a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation® Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin and the lead author of the study. "We found that Kickin' Asthma is a good strategy for educating adolescents about their disease and helping them to take more control over it."
The study found that Kickin' Asthma demonstrated measurable and significant improvements for asthma symptoms, correct medication usage, and reduction in asthma morbidity for urban adolescent students during the first three years of the program. Days of activity limitations and days of school missed were significantly reduced (by one half day for every four weeks of intervention). The proportion of students who reported outpatient emergency care or hospitalization for asthma was significantly lower after participation during the first two years of the program. Frequency of daytime symptoms declined for the first three years of the program.
"The Kickin' Asthma program is specifically designed for an urban population and addresses the problem in children and adolescents during a potentially critical time, when they are starting to have more control over their own asthma care," said Adam Davis, Director of Programs and Research at the American Lung Association of California and Director of Oakland Kicks Asthma, which funded the Kickin' Asthma program.