Reviews and feature articleSchool-based asthma programs
Section snippets
Case identification of asthma in schools
A recent report from the American Thoracic Society has provided a comprehensive review of issues in screening for asthma in children both in the general population and in schools.9 Screening has the theoretical advantage of identifying undiagnosed and undertreated children. Questionnaires to identify students with undiagnosed asthma have been developed and validated across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. For example, Redline et al10 validated a 7-item screening tool to identify
Strategies to improve access to care
One strategy for improving control of asthma in school children is to ensure that the students have access to medical care, either in the school or in the community. A variety of approaches have been tried, all of which involve some degree of partnership among school personnel, health care providers in the community, and parents. Access to rescue care at school is perhaps the most widespread approach. In the majority of the public schools in the United States, students or their parents can work
Strategies to teach students self-treatment skills
School-based interventions have effectively improved asthma knowledge, self-treatment skills, and self-efficacy; reduced asthma morbidity, including reductions in symptoms, ED visits, and hospitalizations; and improved quality of life, including reductions in school absences and improved grades.39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 The recently revised National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Expert Panel guidelines for diagnosis and management of asthma48 and a recent review by Clark et al49
Strategies to teach school faculty and personnel management skills
Given the significant amount of time children spend in school during the academic year, it is important for school faculty and staff to be educated about asthma and to have skills to prevent and to manage asthma. Although school nurses are the most common provider of school health services, only about one third of schools nationwide have full-time nurses, and one third have full-time health aides.22 In the absence of having a full-time medical staff, medication administration and asthma
Future directions
Several studies suggest that school-based asthma interventions can improve health outcomes and quality of life in children who have persistent asthma. However, the partnership of the educational and public health systems requires clearer delineation. Screening instruments need to be refined to identify those children who would benefit most from further assessment and treatment. A notable goal of school-based asthma programs is to have nurses present in the school. School nurses have important
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Cited by (79)
The West Philadelphia asthma care implementation study (NHLBI# U01HL138687)
2021, Contemporary Clinical Trials CommunicationsCitation Excerpt :Open Airways for Schools (OAS) Plus designed by Clark [14] et al. seeks to improve the disease management skills of children with asthma and enhance control of asthma in school [14]. This EBI contains four “essential components” of the recently published School-based Asthma Management Program (SAMPRO) summit guidelines and has been found to decrease both asthma symptom days and school absences [23–25]. One OAS class series will be conducted by the sCHW each semester.
Psychosocial stress, sleep quality and interest in mind-body integrative health sleep intervention among urban adolescents in the school-based health setting
2021, Complementary Therapies in MedicineThe Development and Preliminary Impact of CAMP Air: A Web-based Asthma Intervention to Improve Asthma Among Adolescents
2021, Patient Education and CounselingAsthma Across Childhood: Improving Adherence to Asthma Management from Early Childhood to Adolescence
2020, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In PracticeCitation Excerpt :Schools may have fully staffed health centers, full-time nurses, or no personnel at all.2 Unfortunately, the schools with a greater burden of students with asthma and which would benefit the most from these programs tend to have limited resources.29 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Asthma Control Program suggests that state-coordinated programs can help build capacity to implement school-based asthma control programs in schools with limited funds.31
Proximity to major roadways and asthma symptoms in the School Inner-City Asthma Study
2020, Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyAsthma in Schools: How School-Based Partnerships Improve Pediatric Asthma Care
2019, Immunology and Allergy Clinics of North America
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: M. Kattan has received research support from the National Institutes of Health. D. Evans has received research support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the Merck Childhood Asthma Network. J.-M. Bruzzese has declared that she has no conflict of interest.