An examination of the relationship between self-management competencies and illness outcome in asthmatic children

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between asthma self-management competency skills and illness control in a sample of asthmatic chi ldren. Previous research has found that there is generally an increase in measures of illness control folloiwing asthma self-management programs. However, these programs have not identified rel iable or standardized competencies and the research suffers from a lack of consensus on which self-management competencies are critical to the control of asthma.

The subjects were 37 asthmatic children and their parents who were recruited from pediatric allergy clinics. The asthmatic children ranged in age between 6 and 13 years old. Asthma self-management competencies were measured by (1) a child self-report in a structured interview format called the Self-Management Competence Inventory; (2) a parent report of the child's self-management competencies called the Parent Enrollment Questionnaire. Illness control was measured by ; (1) number of physician office visits; (2) number of school absenteeisms; and (3) activity ratings by the parent. A correlational design was employed to test for the relationship between asthma self-management competencies and illness control.

Results indicated that the self-management competencies as defined by the Self-Management Competence Inventory were moderately to highly related to successful i1Iness control.