The Efficiency of Asthma Counseling and Education in Enhancing Overall Health Levels

Research Article Appraisal
The article titled, “Effectiveness of a school- and community-based academic asthma health education program on the use of effective asthma self-care behaviors in older school-age students” has comprehensive information on effective asthma self-care behaviors. In fact, the core objective of the research was to assess the efficiency of asthma counseling and education in enhancing overall health levels. The study was a phase III, single-blinded, and longitudinal design-guided research. Caregivers of the fourth and fifth-grade scholars completed the asthma health behaviors survey at both pre-intervention and post-intervention stages. According to research findings, all the students demonstrated an improvement in risk reduction and episode management as a way of staying healthy and asthma-prepared. Moreover, it was clear that nurses can collaborate with school teachers to improve the use of asthma self-care behaviors.
The study focused on older school-age students based on the growth cusp trajectories after shifting to personal responsibilities on managing asthmatic conditions during their transition from elementary to middle-high school. Conversely, community components targeted all the community members by identifying students suffering from mild to severe asthmatic conditions. The study included members of the supportive network including family members, neighbors, classmates, and other group leaders. The research was phase III and contained a randomized clinical trial with a core objective of assessing the impact of SHARP on human behaviors and aspects of quality of life on asthma self-care.
The core purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of the counseling program by fostering the use of asthma on self-care behaviors. According to research findings, all the participants (students) showed health promotion and risk reduction behaviors. The scores for self-care behaviors ranged from never to always. The study involved various variables that researchers attempted to measure. For instance, students diagnosed with asthma were the independent variables in the study. Conversely, the period of diagnosis, prescribed medications, gender, and race were examples of dependent variables. The variables were reflective to framework concepts.
Arguably, the conceptual definitions in the study were consistent with the various operational definitions. The research involved different forms of demographic variables. For instance, age, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds were variables that researchers recognized in the study. The students included 60% male, 43% black, 13% from mixed races, while 34% were from low economic backgrounds. Health promotion behaviors, episode management, and prevention behaviors were ideal examples of extraneous variables in the research.
Research Design
The research was a single-blinded, cluster-randomized, two-group, and randomized study. The caregivers included a total of 205 fourth...