Impact of Asthma Education Program 2020-2021 on Asthma Control Among Bronchial Asthma Children in Madinah City, Saudi Arabia

Jawharah Alhazmi; Shaima Alhazmi; Enas Alharbi; Areej Alghamdi; Rawan Alrumaithi; Mohammed Altamimi; Shahad Alharbi; Bader Aljohani; Faisal Alghamdi

doi:10.7759/cureus.40571

Impact of Asthma Education Program 2020-2021 on Asthma Control Among Bronchial Asthma Children in Madinah City, Saudi Arabia

Cureus. 2023 Jun 17;15(6):e40571. doi: 10.7759/cureus.40571. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Jawharah Alhazmi¹, Shaima Alhazmi², Enas Alharbi³, Areej Alghamdi⁴, Rawan Alrumaithi⁵, Mohammed Altamimi⁶, Shahad Alharbi⁷, Bader Aljohani⁸, Faisal Alghamdi⁹

Affiliations

¹ Pediatric Medicine, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Medical City, Madinah, SAU.
² Pediatric Medicine, Ohud Hospital, Madinah, SAU.
³ Allergy and Immunology, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Medical City, Madinah, SAU.
⁴ Preventive Medicine, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Medical City, Madinah, SAU.
⁵ Anesthesia, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah Hospital, Madinah, SAU.
⁶ Primary Health Care, Quba Primary Health Care Center, Madinah, SAU.
⁷ Clinical Nutrition, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Taibah University, Madinah, SAU.
⁸ Family Medicine, Madinah Health Cluster, Madinah, SAU.
⁹ Pediatrics, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Medical City, Madinah, SAU.

Abstract

Background: Asthma control among asthmatic children still remains suboptimal. Saudi literature are scarce in this context, and there is a paucity of reports that compare asthma control level pre- and post-education program directed to asthmatic patients and their parents.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the impact of asthma education and flu vaccination on asthma control in asthmatic children in Madinah region from 2020 to 2021, in terms of ED visits, hospitalization, pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission, and asthma control level.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at primary health care (PHC) centers in Al-Madinah City, Saudi Arabia. The study analyzed data from 804 asthmatic children patients from randomly selected six PHC centers. The data were collected by a valid structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included socio-demographic and clinical data. Child asthma symptoms control was examined by the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT) for children aged 5-12 years, and the Test for Respiratory and Asthma Control in Kids (TRACK) for children less than five years of age. The collected data were analyzed using the appropriate statistical tests.

Results: The mean age of the studied children was 6.1±3.0 (1-14 years), with 59.8% of them being males. There have been statistically significant reductions for asthmatic children in ED visits/month, hospitalization, and pediatric ICU admission/years in the post-education groups for all studied patients and patients <five years and five to 12 years. The average ACT and TRACK scores were significantly higher in the post-education group. The controlled asthma was also significantly higher among post-education groups. The rate of ED visits, hospitalization, critical care needs, and PICU admission significantly decreased among children receiving flu vaccination.

Conclusion: This study emphasizes the role of asthma education and flu vaccination in improving asthma control status of asthmatic children and in decreasing the rate of ED visits, hospitalization, and critical care needs. More longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Keywords: asthma; asthma control; children; education; saudi arabia.