A study of the relationships of self-efficacy of self-management of asthma and asthma self-management knowledge

The purposes of this study are to examine the relationship of self-efficacy regarding self-management of asthma and student self-management knowledge and also examine the extent to which self-efficacy and self-management knowledge predicts student outcomes such as reading grades, the number of times a student was absent and the number of visits a student made to the school nurse. Students were sampled from one public school district within a suburban city in the southwest portion of the United States. The sample was comprised of 33 males and 12 females ranging in age from six to eleven years of age. Three data collection instruments were developed for this study. Parents of the participants were asked to fill out a demographic survey to provide descriptive data. Participants of the study were administered two face-to-face interview surveys: The Asthma Student Self-Management Knowledge in a School Setting Survey (SMS) and the Asthma Self-Efficacy of Self-Management of Asthma Survey (AMES). Both surveys were developed based on the six lesson topics of Open Airways. Two separate data analyses were conducted based on the data collected from each participant. To better understand the relationship between the AMES and the SMS, a Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used in the regression analysis. The findings showed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between the SMS and the AMES. To determine if the AMES and the SMS could predict reading grades, the number of times a student was absent and the number of visits a student made to the school nurse, a multiple linear regression was used. The findings showed that there is minimal evidence showing that only reading scores maybe predicted by asthma self-efficacy and asthma self-management knowledge. Taking into account identified limitations such as not taking into account the severity of the participant??s asthma, one would be cautious to generalize these findings to other children with asthma. Based on these results and limitations, recommendations for future practice and for future research are provided.