Feasibility of a nurse-run asthma education program for urban African-Americans: A pilot study

The objective of the study was to assess the feasibility of implementing an d evaluatimg a culturally appropriate in-patient asthma education program s pecifically targeted for African-Americans. A consecutive sample of 28 Afri can-American patients ages 18-50 who were hospitalized for asthma were rand omized to an intervention group, which received three one-on-one sessions o n chronic asthma management, or a control group, which received the usual c are. Data on symptom frequency self-management behaviors, quality of life, depression, and health care resource use were collected at baseline and at 3 and 6 months. Although the time required to recruit our sample took longe r than anticipated 28 subjects agreed to be in the study (70% acceptance fa te) and complete the baseline interview. We observed no statistically signi ficant differences from baseline or changing trends in frequency of asthma symptoms, self-management behaviors, and health care resource usf between t he intervention and control groups at 3 and 6 months. However, patients ira the intervention group demonstrated a greater average increase in asthma-r elated quality of life and a greater average decrease in depression than th e control group. Feasibility issues included shortened length of stay, whic h necessitated conducting all three self-management sessions together multi ple interruptions during the sessions, and retention issues at 3- and 6-mon th follow-ups. The lessons learned from this pilot study are invaluable in that they will enable us to make changes in our existing protocol to ensure the success of a larger clinical trial.