This study was conducted to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of two different asthma educational programs. One was self-management asthma education based on the PRECEDE-PROCEED model to change the influential factors based on a previous need assessment study in Taiwan. The other consisted of regular outpatient asthma education. The purposes were: (1) to compare differences in the asthma knowledge, self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness, children's cooperation, doctor-patient communication, and self-management behaviors in the experimental and control groups before education, and 2 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after education; and (2) to compare differences in drug use, medication utilization, asthma severity, signs/symptoms of asthma, school absenteeism, and exercise ability before education, and 2 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after education. Parents of asthmatic children were recruited from among outpatients of Chang Gung Children's Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan. They were grouped by registration number: those with even numbers were assigned to the experimental group, and those with odd numbers were assigned to the control group. Measurements were collected four times from all parents by means of a questionnaire and chart review. The General Linear Model: Repeat Measurement was used to compare variance differences. The following results were found. (1) Asthma knowledge, self-efficacy, perceived effectiveness, children's cooperation, and self-management behaviors significantly improved after the self-management asthma educational program based on PRECEDE-PROCEED. Except for perceived effectiveness, all variables still had good effectiveness after 6 months of follow-up. The experimental group was better than the control group in knowledge, children's cooperation, and self-management behaviors at the 3-month follow up, as well as in knowledge and children's cooperation at the 6-month follow-up. (2) In both the experimental and control groups, the educational program had a good impact on the health outcome. The average degree of drug use was reduced from 2.7 to 2.1. The number of visits was reduced from 4.75 to 3.55 per half year in the experimental group, and from 5.8 to 3.48 in the control group. The severity of asthma was reduced from 2.7 to 2.1. The signs/symptoms of asthma decreased, school absenteeism was reduced, and exercise ability improved after education at the 6-month follow-up in both groups. From the results of this study, the theory-based educational program had a good effect on self-management behaviors. From the repeat measurement analysis, we can understand the changing trend of the determinants, behaviors, and outcome indicators. The trend indicated that educational effects were sustained for at least 3 months, with some for 6 months. In order to maintain the educational effects, further specific series of educational programs can be designed based on the patterns of self-management behavior stages every 6 months. The effects of health outcomes may show significant differences using longer follow-up times in future clinical trials.

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