BACKGROUND:

The study was part of an initiative "Interventions to Improve Asthma Management and Prevention at School". The Broad Agency Announcement was released in June, 1994.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

The intervention was a combination of: targeted education for children with asthma, other children in the school, families, physicians and school personnel; concerted effort to change school policies working against effective self-management of asthma; community action/education to create awareness and support for the schools' efforts to control the disease. Open Airways for School, a proven educational program, was adapted for students in the Detroit metropolitan area as part of the intervention. This program was based on social cognitive theory while modeling effective asthma management behavior, involving students in activities where they mastered skills relevant to asthma management, and developing the students' sense of confidence to carry out asthma management tasks. For education of all students, a learning module called "Environmental Detective" was developed to complement the Michigan Model of comprehensive health education offered in classrooms in Michigan. The Environmental Detective game sensitized children without asthma to the problems of children with asthma. The intervention was evaluated through a controlled research design to determine if it had an impact on asthma morbidity, the number of days of limited activity of the child with asthma, and his or her academic performance.

The project was a collaboration of the University of Michigan School of Public Health and School of Medicine, the Henry Ford Hospital Center of Detroit, the Washtenaw County Health and Human Services Department, the American Lung Association of Michigan, and the State of Michigan Department of Education.