EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUALIZED ASTHMA SELF-MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

We compared the effectiveness of personalized asthma self-management r ecommendations with that of a group self-management program. We assign ed each of 34 asthma patients randomly to one of three conditions: ind ividualized asthma self-management, group asthma self-management, and control. We derived individualized self-management recommendations fro m patient recordings of asthma occurrence, asthma precipitants, and pe ak expiratory flow rate made during a 3-month period. The group progra m we used was the Wheezers Anonymous program. As compared to a control group of patients who received no self-management training, the patie nts in both the individualized and group condition evidenced improveme nt of pulmonary function, as measured daily with a home peak flow mete r. The improvement was equivalent for patients in the two conditions. Patients in the individualized condition also exhibited a drop in freq uency of asthma attacks, but patients in the group condition did not. We concluded that individualized asthma self-management is effective i n reducing symptoms of asthma.