Feasibility of a worksheet for facilitating self-management in children with asthma

Abstract

Background: Few tools exist to facilitate recommended self-management support for children with asthma. We sought to examine the feasibility, acceptance and preliminary results of a novel worksheet designed to provide such support for children and their caregivers presenting for asthma care. Methods: A 12-topic asthma worksheet was modeled on currently available self-management tools and based on the behavior change theory and motivational interviewing techniques. Children 1–18 years old with asthma and their caregivers were recruited from an allergy clinic and an inpatient ward to pilot test the worksheet by choosing three topics, generating self-management goals for each topic and assessing their self-efficacy for behavior change. Physician documentation of the visit was reviewed for comparison. Telephone follow up of self-management goals occurred 1 week after the visit. Results: Forty-one of 46 eligible subjects agreed to participate (89%). Average completion time was 5:47 min (range 3:30–13:00). Most of them (98%) found the worksheet easy to understand, with minor modifications suggested. Topics most commonly selected were distinct from topics documented by physicians in the subsequent encounter (p < 0.01). Subjects generated 121 total self-management goals; 93% were at least “moderately confident” they could meet the goals. All 15 subjects reached by phone (37%) had achieved at least one goal at follow-up. Conclusions: A worksheet designed for self-management support of children is brief, feasible and acceptable in the clinical environment. This tool captures unique patient-centered preferences for behavior change, and shows promise for facilitating goal-setting and self-management education in the routine clinical care of pediatric asthma.

• Education
• health behavior
• motivational interviewing
• patient-centered care
• pediatric

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Ms. Ashley Stevenson for her work as the research assistant for this project.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.