IMPACT OF ASTHMA ON ADOLESCENTS

IMPACT OF ASTHMA ON ADOLESCENTS

Introduction

Asthma involves the inflammatory cells in the lungs being activated. Eosinophils in the airways of patients with untreated asthma is conspicuous with mononuclear cells, mast cells, and lymphocytes. The inflammation changes the structure of bronchi, altering the sub epithelium and epithelium (Chanez & Bourdin, 2008). The smooth muscle cell abnormalities are due to inflammation caused by asthma. The decline in lung function also causes airway remodelling making them different from those of healthy individuals.

To know the symptoms, adults and teenagers with asthma usually have shortness of breath, which results in breathlessness if exercising. Also, there is tightness of the chest and a whistling sound when breathing (InformedHealth, 2017).  A person also feels the urge to cough.

Studying about asthma in adolescents helps teens and health workers know the triggers and symptoms of asthma. This will help the adolescents manage their condition and prevent situations where they will trigger the illness, causing a spike. Also, by having awareness, the teenager will be able to monitor themselves and know their progress.

Asthma limits a person’s daily tasks. Also, individuals with asthma cannot have some exercises and avoid triggers in their daily activities. This causes emotional awareness that can affect their psychological health. Even by thinking about it regularly, asthma patients can feel frustrated.

Significance to Nursing profession and Effects to Community

Knowing asthma and its management gives the nurses the power to help people with asthma and their families. This can include educating them about the illness and how to manage it and how the person needs to change their attitudes towards asthma. Also, nurses knowing asthma increases the pool of health workers with the knowledge, making a patient have many health workers to approach for support.

Asthma affects the community negatively through the relationship problems that the persons with the illness have with their families and society. The emotional strain can also decrease their work output, affecting them and their organization economically. Also, it affects healthcare with funds going to its management and medication.

Nursing Research Article

Factors Associated with Asthma Self-management in African American Adolescents

Purpose and Significance of the Study

The purpose of the study was to research asthma self-management in African American adolescent aged between 14-16 years. Self-management of asthma differs in a different race, age-group and gender (Crowder et al., 2015). Factors affecting self-management in African American are prior education on asthma, the level of asthma impairment, gender, cognitive and emotional illness.

Research Sample

The study was done on 133 African American between the age of 14-16. All adolescents who participated were recruited from schools, medical centers, and the community. They signed assent to participate, and their parents signed consent letters (Crowder et al., 2015). The criteria for the study were African American, be fluent in English, must have received asthma treatment within the past one year, no other chronic illness interfering with asthma and also be in their middle adolescent years.

Methodology

Different information was required from the participants, requiring different methods to collect the data. To know about asthma education, the participants had to fill in a form indicating the year and length of any formal asthma education they have received (Crowder et al., 2015). The asthma self-care Practice instrument (ASCPI) was used to measure asthma self-management. An illness perception questionnaire-revised (IPQ-R) with 56 items was used to measure illness representation (Crowder et al., 2015). For asthma impairment, the asthma control test (ACT), with have different impairment and control levels was used.

Data analysis

Self-management in percipients was analyzed by using analysis of variance for variables and interval and ratio level variables, Pearson correlation was used. Statistical mean and the standard deviation was used in analyzing illness representation (Crowder et al., 2015). Relationship between illness representation and self-management scores were measured using Pearson correlations. All the variables were later used in the regression model.

Research Results

Adolescents who had undergone an asthma education program had higher self-management scores than those who had not. Out of 133 participants, only 26 had formal education on asthma, with most of them going through the program 2-3 years before the research study (Crowder et al., 2015). The education program lasted for one hour. Also, the asthma education was conducted in a hospital setting (11.2% of the participants under education program), camps for under 18 years with asthma (3.8%) and schools (2.3%) (Crowder et al., 2015).  Most participants perceived asthma as chronic without many negative consequences (Crowder et al., 2015). Finally, better self-management was attributed to the effects of the illness, a good understanding of the illness and a strong belief in the treatment of asthma.

Theoretical Perspectives on Asthma

Exploring the Theoretical Pathways Through Which Asthma App Features Can Promote Adolescent Self-Management

Growth and Development

With over 73% of adolescents having a smartphone and preferring technology-based education, there is need to change asthma education from face-to-face communication to the use of smartphones. Adolescents can benefit from a mobile application that can help in self-management of the illness. A mobile application can help the teen in remembering appointments and taking medication on time. This self-observant behavior improves their knowledge of medication by knowing the type of drugs used, and also made it fun to take the medication altogether, changing their perception of asthma and medicine (Carpenter et al., 2016). Having a dairy feature in the mobile app helped the teens to monitor their progress over time. Documenting their daily medication and asthma effects makes the teens aware of their condition, helping them know how they are progressing, which helps in their growth and awareness.

Also, an app can help in documenting their symptoms and what triggers the illness. This self-observation makes the teen have a better understanding of their environment and how to control the triggers. This helps in maintaining a healthy life by avoiding the triggers or managing the symptoms. Self-check features can help in checking the severity of asthma in teens (Carpenter et al., 2016). Mobile applications for asthma can help in managing the illness by having all the information before a trigger or symptom happens. This is due to the knowledge of the triggers, how and when to avoid situations triggering the illness.

Conclusion

Asthma is a manageable condition. For adolescents, having a formal education will help them in not only managing it but also in understanding it better, changing their perception of asthma and medication. Since learning takes some hours, I believe the best strategy is to make it mandatory for any person under 18 years of age to go through the training. Also, health workers should avail themselves to explain to the adolescents about the illness. Finally, having a way to manage the illness while still young prevents the condition from becoming worse. Children should, therefore, be sensitized about the condition for their benefits.

References

Carpenter et al. (2016). Exploring the theoretical pathways through which asthma app features can promote adolescent self-management. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 6(4), 509-518. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs13142-016-0402-z

Chanez, P. & Bourdin, A. (2008). Clinical Asthma. ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323042895100037

Crowder et al. (2015). Factors Associated with Asthma Self-management in African American Adolescents. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 30(6), 35-45. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.pedn.2015.03.005

InformedHealth. (2017, November 30). Asthma: Overview. NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279520/