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THURSDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) -- A Web-based asthma management program proved highly effective in helping low-income black students manage their asthma, say researchers at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
The "Puff City" program tries to teach teens how to better manage their asthma by focusing on three core behaviors: controller medication adherence, rescue inhaler availability, and quitting or reducing smoking.
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The researchers studied the program's impact among 314 mostly black students at six Detroit high schools. The students were divided into two groups. One group took part in four "Puff City" sessions, while the control group looked at generic asthma Web sites.
During the study, teens in the "Puff City" group reported slightly less than one night of symptoms every two weeks, compared with 1.5 symptom-nights reported by those in the control group.
Teens in the treatment group missed less than half a school day every 30 days and had 1.3 days of restrictive activity every two weeks, compared with 1.2 missed school days and 2.3 days of restrictive activity among teens in the control group.
The findings were published in the first issue for May of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
"To our knowledge, our program is the first tailored, Web-based multimedia asthma program for urban high school students evaluated in a non-clinic community setting," Christine L. M. Joseph, a senior staff epidemiologist at the Henry Ford Health System, said in a prepared statement.
"Results suggest that, for students in the treatment arm, functional status was significantly improved and the state of being diseased was significantly reduced when compared with a control group with access to generic asthma education Web sites," Joseph said.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about asthma control.
-- Robert Preidt
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