A PEDIATRIC MULTIMEDIA APPROACH IN INHALED BRONCHODILATOR MEDICATION EDUCATION
Rationale/Background: In the United States, asthma affects 7.1 million children, making asthma one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood (American Lung Association [ALA], 2014). Asthma is the third-leading cause of hospitalization for children. In 2011, 169 children died due to complications from asthma. Annual costs to healthcare, both directly and indirectly, amount to $56 billion dollars. Research shows that asthma education both promotes self-management and improves patient outcomes. The use of multimedia education, in particular, has a potential to produce positive results in pediatric patients.
Undertaking/Best Practice/Approach/Methods/Process: Baccalaureate and doctoral nursing students and a film & media studies student collaborated to develop a multimedia approach to prevent asthma exacerbations in school-aged children. An educational video was created by nursing and film students in the Barrett Honors program at Arizona State University. The video depicted a school-aged child experiencing an asthmatic crisis while playing soccer and shows how the effective use of a bronchodilator inhaler may prevent an exacerbation. A pilot test was conducted by a doctoral student at a family care clinic in northern New Mexico. The Asthma Usage Questionnaire and the Asthma Control Test were provided to 12 asthmatic children, ages 8-11. Pilot test data were analyzed using a Wilcoxon signed-ranked test to compare each child’s scores on the Asthma Control Tests, before and after the multimodal approach. The multimedia approach included both the video and a children’s picture book that reminded pediatric patients of asthma prevention methods and the importance of taking their daily medications. The children’s book provided additional educational content on asthma management in a creative and age-appropriate way.
Outcomes Achieved/Documented: The pilot test of the video showed that there was a statistically significant increase in parents’ reports of medication adherence (z = -2.47, p = .01, n = 12) with a medium effect size (0.5) and also in asthma control (z = -0.749, p= 0.454, n = 12) with a small effect size (0.1). The addition of the children’s book to the multimedia approach has not yet been evaluated.
Conclusions: A multimedia approach to client education should be considered by primary care providers as a method to improve children’s and parents’ understanding of asthma and encourage open dialogue between provider, parent, and child. A multimedia approach to education has the potential to improve a child’s self-management of asthma, and ultimately, reduce the rate of hospitalizations related to asthma complications.