Telephone coaching for parents of children with asthma: Impact and lessons learned

Jane M. Garbutt, Christina Banister, Gabrielle Highstein, Randall Sterkel, Jay Epstein, Julie Bruns, Lisa Swerczek, Suzanne Wells, Brian Waterman, Robert C. Strunk, Gordon R. Bloomberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether an asthma coaching program can improve parent and child asthma-related quality of life (QOL) and reduce urgent care events. Design: Randomized controlled trial of usual care vs usual care with coaching. Comparisons were made between groups using mixed models. Setting: A Midwest city. Participants: A community-based sample of 362 families with a child aged 5 to 12 years with persistent asthma. Intervention: A 12-month structured telephone coaching program in which trained coaches provided education and support to parents for 4 key asthma management behaviors. Main Outcome Measures: Parental and child QOL measured with a validated, interview-administered, 7-point instrument and urgent care events in a year (unscheduled office visits, after-hours calls, emergency department visits, or hospitalizations) determined by record audit. Results: Parental asthma-related QOL scores improved by an average of 0.67 units (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.49 to 0.84) in the intervention group and 0.28 units (95% CI, 0.10 to 0.46) in the control group. The difference between study groups was statistically significant (difference, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.14 to 0.63). No between-group difference was found in the change in the child's QOL (difference, -0.17; 95% CI, -0.47 to 0.12) or in the mean number of urgent care events per year (difference, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.82 to 1.61). The proportion of children with very poorly controlled asthma in the intervention group decreased compared with the control group (difference, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.21 to 0.48). Conclusions: A telephone coaching program can improve parental QOL and can be implemented without additional physician training or practice redesign. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00660322.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)625-630
Number of pages6
JournalArchives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Volume164
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2010

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