Children with asthma and nebulizer use: Parental asthma self-care practices and beliefs

We examined demographic characteristics, patterns of medication use, asthma morbidity, and asthma self-management practices and beliefs among inner-ci ty children currently using a nebulizer. We also describe the relationship between asthma self-management practices and beliefs and anti-inflammatory (AI) therapy. We observed a high rate of morbidity, including frequent emer gency room visits, hospitalizations, symptom days and nights, and school ab sences in this group of school-aged children with asthma. More than three-q uarters (81%) reported asthma symptoms consistent with mild persistent or g reater severity of asthma, and therefore these subjects should be taking AI medications. Another 16% (36 of 231) of these children reported symptoms c onsistent with mild intermittent asthma. Only 1 out of 7 children in this s tudy reported taking AI medications. We found that parents of children taki ng daily AI medications were more likely to agree with the belief that chil dren should use asthma medications daily even when the child is not reporti ng any symptoms.