Fostering Effective Asthma Self-Management Transfer in High-Risk Children: Gaps and Opportunities for Family Engagement.
Rachel H F Margolis, Melissa H Bellin, Jaclyn R MacFarlane Bookman and 4 others
PMID 31253454WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers of children with uncontrolled asthma often overestimated their child's ability to manage the condition, with two-thirds believing their child's asthma was well-controlled despite clinical evidence to the contrary.
None reported receiving guidance from healthcare providers on when or how to transfer self-management responsibility.
Key findings
01Two-thirds of participating mothers perceived their child's asthma to be well controlled, although all children were clinically classified as having poorly controlled asthma.
02No participant reported receiving guidance from healthcare providers on when or how to transfer asthma self-management responsibility to the child.
03Mothers' decisions about transferring asthma management responsibility were often based on their own personal history with asthma rather than on national guidelines or their child's developmental readiness.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample included only mothers, not the children themselves, so the child's perspective on self-management development is missing. Participants were exclusively low-income, urban, African-American mothers of children with poorly controlled asthma, so findings may not apply to families with higher socioeconomic status, different racial backgrounds, or children with well-controlled asthma. The study did not specifically probe how mothers defined 'well-controlled' asthma, limiting understanding of the discrepancy between perceived and objective control levels.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the mothers' confidence in their child's self-management abilities as evidence that the children were actually capable of independent asthma management. The study found a significant disconnect between perceived control and objective clinical data, with two-thirds of mothers believing their child's asthma was well-controlled when it was not.