Asthma school for asthmatic children and their parents.

Therapeutic education is becoming essential in the management of asthmatic children. The objective of this type of education is to modify in a durable manner the knowledge and behaviour of parents so as to decrease the morbid ity of the disease. Objectives. - To describe the population of patients whose parents attend t he asthma school at Necker-Enfants-Malades Hospital and to evaluate the imp act of this educational activity. Methods. - We included the 54 children whose parents attended the asthma sc hool from September 27th to December 31st, 2000. Two educational sessions w ere offered. Socio-demographic and medical data were collected and markers of this educational activity were assessed by means of three questionnaires . The parents first answered questions immediately after the educational se ssion. The second questionnaire was completed 3 to 6 months later. Results. - The mean age of the patients was 8 years and 3 months, The patie nts were of French origin, living in traditional family structures in the I le-de France region. All had symptomatic asthma, affecting their quality of life and requiring active treatment. During the immediate evaluation, the knowledge and behaviour of the parents were judged to be correct. Some pare nts changed attitudes or behaviour later, particularly with respect to the means of managing asthma episodes or their beliefs concerning possible seco ndary effects of the treatment or the origins of the child's asthma. The fo llow-up period was too short, and the sample too small to draw any firm con clusions on the impact of this educational action on morbidity. Conclusion. - The structured educational action is effective. It should be adapted to patients and reinforced later because its effects may be transie nt. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.