Learning Objective #1: understand the procedures and content of the hospital-based case management for children with asthma

Learning Objective #2: implementate the environement control checklist as the outcome indicator to monitor the caregivers' self-management behaviors

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Reductions of allergic triggers were important self-management behaviors for preventing asthma attack and case management model was effective program for chronic disease management. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of hospital-based Childhood Asthma Case Management (CACM) on home environment control behaviors of the parents who caring the children with moderate to severe asthma and the asthma signs and symptoms improved of children. This study was a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design. Seventy-five parents of children with moderate or severe asthma were enrolled. Thirty-eight children for the experimental group received the CACM from one hospital and thirty-seven children for the comparison group received the routine individual education program from the other hospital by purposive sampling. The Home Environment Control Inventory (HECI), asthma signs/symptoms checklist and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) were used to evaluate the effectiveness of CACM program after three months. The HECI included 5 subscales: Humidity Control, Household Dust and Clean, Allergens Control Products, Smoking and Stimulating Odors in Home, and Pets, Furry Animals, and Other Triggers. The asthma signs/symptoms checklist assessed about night sleeping, coughing, wheezing, and dyspnea of children. The data were analyzed by General Linear Model (GLM) for repeat measures by SPSS for windows (version 10.0). The results illustrated that the behaviors of The Household Dust and Cleaning Methods and the asthma signs/symptoms between the experimental and comparison groups had significantly interaction effects (p<.05) after CACM. Home environment control self-management behaviors for reductions of allergic triggers and asthma signs/symptoms were improved after conducting the hospital-based CACM in children with moderate to severe asthma. Continued follow-up and evaluated the longitudinal effectiveness was necessary. The results were used to be the standard case management procedures for caring children with chronic asthma.