The role of patient education in the management of childhood asthma.

Because patient behavior plays a major role in the prevention or precipitation of acute asthma attacks, patient education is an important adjunct to its medical management. A number of self-management education programs for patients with asthma recently have been developed and made available for widespread use. Many are aimed at children over the age of 6 years and their parents. They are designed for use with several types of patients in a variety of settings. Evidence of program effectiveness is of uneven quality, but what is available suggests that a number of the programs can be of significant value in reducing asthma morbidity. Self-management education programs for parents of preschool-age children and for adults with asthma are much less numerous and well developed than those for school-age children. Particular attention is given to the process by which the AIR POWER and AIR WISE programs for children were developed, since this systematic development process is generalizable to patient education programs for other age groups and health problems.