Increasing awareness of asthma and asthma resources in communities on the southwest border.

Abstract

To provide outpatient asthma education for children and families along the southwest border of the U.S. and to study the effectiveness of a southwest border hospital's in-house asthma educational program. (1) "Increasing the Knowledge Base of Asthmatics and Their Families through Asthma Clubs along the Southwest Border." (2) American Lung Association. (3) National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. (4) Referrals from a southwest border hospital. Only two of 23 patients referred for asthma follow-up were readmitted to hospital and/or emergency care during the following year. Large group teaching pretest-posttest score means for 3,429 fourth and fifth grade students revealed a 23% increase in asthma knowledge. Small follow-up groups of students received in-depth asthma education. Effectiveness of hospital inpatient asthma education combined with outpatient family follow-up was supported. An additional finding was that southwest border families are more receptive to visits arranged with a school nurse in their children's school than to home visits from primary care clinic nurses.