Responsibility for Asthma Management Among Adolescents With and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

J Adolesc Health. 2019 Dec;65(6):812-814. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.05.023. Epub 2019 Aug 2.

Abstract

Purpose: Among diverse, low-income urban adolescents with persistent asthma, we examined whether attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) comorbidity, compared with asthma alone, was associated with clinical outcomes, healthcare utilization, and responsibility for self-management.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a large school-based study of adolescents with asthma in Rochester, NY. Adolescents reported asthma symptoms over 2 weeks and primary care and hospital admissions over 1 year. We assessed shared responsibility for asthma management between caregivers and adolescents.

Results: ADHD comorbidity was common (28%) in this sample of 370 adolescents. Adolescents with ADHD had more primary care utilization and hospitalizations than those without, despite having similar asthma symptoms. Caregivers and adolescents with ADHD reported that adolescents had less shared responsibility for nine asthma management tasks.

Conclusions: Adolescents with ADHD share less responsibility for asthma self-management. These teens' increased healthcare use might provide opportunities for clinicians to provide extra self-management support.

Keywords: ADHD; Asthma; Responsibility; Self-management.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Asthma / epidemiology*
  • Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / epidemiology*
  • Caregivers / statistics & numerical data
  • Comorbidity
  • Disease Management*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Patient Acceptance of Health Care / statistics & numerical data*
  • Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
  • Schools
  • United States