Paper
Saturday, 22 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Children and Adolescents with Healthcare Issues
Living with Asthma: A Focus Study of Adolescents with Asthma
Hyekyun Rhee, PhD, RN, School of Nursing, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA, Jennifer A. Wenzel, PhD, RN, CCM, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, and Tami Wyatt, PhD, RN, College of Nursing, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, USA.
Learning Objective #1: understand psychosocial experiences of adolescents living with asthma.
Learning Objective #2: identify learning needs about asthma in adolescents.
According to recent data, among children under the age of 18, the asthma lifetime diagnosis rate was 12.6% (9.2 million); 6.2 million reported suffering current asthma episodes. The 2003 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed that over 16% of high school students reported current asthma, of which nearly 38% had experienced asthma attack or episodes during the preceding 12 months. Despite the high prevalence, adolescents are less likely to use health-care services (annual outpatient office visits) than younger children, and annual asthma mortality among adolescents is approximately twice that of younger children. Nonetheless, asthma in adolescents has received less attention compared to younger children, and the ways that adolescents experience asthma remain to be explored along with their particular learning needs. Six focus groups assigned by gender and age groups (Younger vs. Older) were conducted using 19 adolescents with asthma ages 12-18 in 2004 thru 2005. Focus group transcripts were reviewed and analyzed independently by 3 researchers before descriptive summaries were created using coding and categorizing steps as a team. Three general descriptions of experiences with asthma were found in the data: “Doing less with more effort,” “Missing out,” and “Not all bad.” Adolescents reported the experiences of negative emotions in association with asthma and others’ lack of understanding. Three coping strategies, “Toughening,” “Guardedness” and “Modifying” were also identified. The majority of participants denied previous experiences with formal asthma educations. When compared to older adolescents, younger adolescents expressed stronger motivation to learn about asthma. Adolescents identified asthma learning needs for others in their lives. The importance of socialization, support and information-sharing with other adolescents with asthma was perceived by participants in all age and gender groups.  Findings enhance understanding of particular patterns of psychosocial experiences and asthma learning needs in adolescents and lay a foundation for developmentally appropriate asthma interventions.  

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