Effects of coping-skills training in low-income urban African-American adolescents with asthma

Abstract

Background: Minority teens with asthma are at particular risk for this life-threatening disease due to increased morbidity and mortality rates in addition to the normal challenges of adolescence.

Objective: The purpose of this randomized controlled trial (n = 137) was to determine the effects of a coping-skills training program (intervention) compared with standard asthma education (attention control) in African-American teens with asthma.

Methods: Adolescents were recruited from five African-American dominant high schools serving low-income areas of Chicago. Data were collected at baseline, 2 months (immediately following the intervention), 6 months, and 12 months. Results. Both groups improved over time, with significant increases in asthma-related quality of life, asthma knowledge, and asthma self-efficacy, accompanied by decreases in symptom days and asthma-related school absences.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that coping-skills training as implemented in this study provided no additional benefit beyond that experienced in the control group. However, group-based interventions delivered in the school setting may be beneficial for low-income, minority teens with asthma.