Active clinical trials for "Asthma"

This is a single center pilot study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of an asthma education program in the pediatric emergency department. Asthma has reached epidemic proportions. Nine million American children are affected in the United States alone. This problem has increased 75% from 1980 to 1994, with a staggering 160% increase seen in children less than five years old.1 The American Lung Association has targeted this overwhelming problem on both national and local levels. Asthma impacts American communities who differ geographically, culturally, ethnically and by lifestyle, and as a result will present with different obstacles. The primary objectives are: to determine whether this educational intervention (through interactions with a child life specialist and using the asthma based computer game) in the pediatric ED can influence children's [and care givers'] knowledge and understanding of the disease process and treatment, and to improve asthma self-management and decrease morbidity by decreasing ED use and hospitalization. A secondary objective is to introduce the Child Life Specialist as an effective asthma educator and further strengthen the health care team. The target population will be recruited from the pediatric emergency department. We anticipate this study to recruit over a one year period and have a one year follow up with an anticipated enrollment of 64 children and families. There will be three Child Life Specialist involved in this program. After consent has been obtained, the child and parent will complete questionnaires (focusing on asthma knowledge, quality of life, and perception of asthma) and then a laptop will be provided to access the asthma based computer game. During the child's ED visit the Child Life Specialist will have opportunities to open communication to address barriers or concerns, and reinforce material provided by the game. Through these interactions, the importance of communication between the child, parent and healthcare provider is highlighted. The family will be given information to access the computer game via the internet. Follow up phone calls or e-mails will occur at 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months which will entail completing questionnaires. The questionnaires uses validated questions along with questions from the material covered through this asthma education study.

The study aims at providing information on how the Short Message Service (SMS) tool influences self-management in asthma patients and to assess the resulting health related effect. A wide range of models and theories exist in the compliance area, such as technical models, communication models, cognitive models and self-management models and theories. The use of some of these theories and models will serve as theoretical and explanatory tools for studying how and why the SMS tool influences the patient's self-management. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the health-related effects of a SMS compliance and monitoring system for optimized asthma treatment in a controlled trial setting.

Among 180 patients with moderate asthma, the specific aim of this randomized trial is to assess the effectiveness of an intervention involving education, enhancement of self-efficacy, and asthma social support in preventing deterioration in functional status over two years.

People from ethnic minority groups suffer worse ill-health from asthma than those from majority groups. No studies have reduced emergency care for people from minority groups. We have developed an education programme to address barriers to improved care for south Asian people with asthma. The study is set in Tower Hamlets and Newham - the UK's most deprived and ethnically diverse boroughs. We will invite all the local GP practices to take part, and using a computer programme, randomised them (like tossing a coin) into two groups - a group receiving usual care and a group receiving our educational programme. This comprises: Education for specialist nurse and GPs and practice nurses, using our adaptation of an American education course, designed to improve shared-decision making, goal-setting and patient-clinician partnership. Lay-led 'expert-patient' education in small groups for patients, using an adaptation of another American course. Improved follow-up in primary care through appointment-booking by the specialist nurse.We will invite south Asians aged 3-65 years with asthma after A&E attendance or hospital admission to take part. Those registered with practices receiving the educational programme will see the trial specialist nurse in a nurse-run clinic, where the nurse: provides self-management advice and a treatment plan, makes a follow-up appointment in primary care makes an appointment for lay-led 'expert-patient' sessions.Patients registered with 'usual care' practices receive usual care. We will decide if our education programme works by comparing the number of emergency visits to GPs and hospital between the two groups.

To determine if teaching parents and children to identify the child's asthma symptoms early and if teaching the appropriate use of a nebulizer will result in a decrease in emergency department visits.

The aim of the present study is to compare the efficacy of inhaled ciclesonide in pre-school children. Ciclesonide will be inhaled once daily, using one of three dose levels and tested versus placebo. The study duration consists of a baseline period (2 to 4 weeks) and a treatment period (24 weeks). The study will provide further data on safety and tolerability of ciclesonide.

Evaluate the incremental effectiveness of peak flow monitoring ove symptom monitoring as a management tool to enhance asthma control in adults >= 50 years with moderate-severe asthma.

This is a health services demonstration project that evaluates three methods of health care delivery for the management of individuals with symptoms of asthma. This study will evaluate the impact of a telephonic asthma disease management process, with and without a home intervention program, on preventing asthma-related morbidity through patient/family asthma education. The investigators' central thesis is that comprehensive clinical disease management protocols for the management of asthma will improve clinical outcomes; reduce fiscal resource consumption; and improve both patient satisfaction and patient quality of life. Additionally, individualized, in-home patient education and environmental assessment, when added to the telephonic protocol, will further improve these measures. However, incremental improvement will vary according to the population's access to care.

Acute exposure to diesel exhaust under normal city conditions leads to a worsening of symptoms of asthma, with reduction in lung function in asthmatic nonsmoking adults, dependent on the exposure dose and on the background severity of asthma. The worsening asthma is accompanied by increased oxidative stress and inflammation in the lungs.

This study is designed to note whether a larger safety study using quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV4) versus quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV4)(FLUARIX®), would be feasible in children with persistent asthma. Half of the patients in this study will receive the FLUARIX® influenza vaccine, while the other half will receive a cell cultured quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (ccIIV4)(Flucelvax®) being used as a surrogate for LAIV4.