Watch, Discover, Think, and Act: a model for patient education program development

In this report we describe the development of the Watch, Discover, Think an d Act asthma self-management computer program for inner-city children with asthma, The intervention focused on teaching two categories of behaviors - asthma specific behaviors such as taking preventive medication and self-reg ulatory processes such as monitoring symptoms and solving asthma problems. These asthma self-management behaviors were then linked with empirical and theoretical determinants such as skills and self-efficacy. We then further used behavioral science theory to develop methods such as role modeling and skill training linked to the determinants. We matched these theoretical me thods to practical strategies within the computer simulation and created a culturally competent program for inner-city minority youth. Finally, we pla nned a program evaluation that linked program impact and outcomes to the th eoretical assumptions on which the intervention was based. (C) 2000 Elsevie r Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.