As a growing number of children are battling asthma, a suprising lack of compliance threatens to impede treatment success.
Childhood asthma has become an epidemic in this country. According to the American Lung Association, 4 million children under the age of 18 had suffered an asthma attack in the last twelve months. The Association went on to predict that still many more went undiagnosed or untreated. Recent attention to "going green" and increased concern for the environment have provided additional evidence of environmental factors for asthma: hydrocarbons, particulates, smog, etc. However, compliance to asthma treatment is also a leading cause in the astounding number of children suffering from asthma attacks. Compliance is multi-faceted, depending on the patient, the parents, and the family unit as a whole.
Patients in Denial
Childhood asthma creates a stigma for some children, who may not want to be recognized as ill. To keep up a healthy front, they may forgo their medications or overexert themselves during play times to overcompensate for feelings they have about their asthma. When a child is diagnosed with asthma, parents and school staff need to pay extra attention to the socialization of the child. This extra attention can be crucial in determining if peer pressures or low self-esteem are playing a role in a child’s non-compliance.
Parents Play a Key Role
Parents need to be educated about childhood asthma as well. Parental influence over a child’s care is really two-fold. First, a parent’s actions can put a child in direct danger of suffering an asthma attack. Behaviors such as smoking or neglecting to clean up dust and pet dander from living areas can be irritants to childhood asthma, exacerbating the condition and causing an attack. Second, parents must be responsible ultimately for ensuring that all medications are taken properly and that all doctor appointments are kept. Most child protection agencies have specific guidelines for determining medical neglect, and these guidelines are used all too often in hospitals because parents do not follow through with their child’s asthma protocol. Even a seemingly well child must still follow their childhood asthma protocol to avoid becoming sick down the road.
Family Center is Key
Compliance among families is another component to successfully fighting childhood asthma. As family centered care becomes a major component in hospital strategy, nurses and doctors are spending more time with families as a whole when providing diagnosis education. This family centered approach ensures a collective sense of responsibility and accountability. This approach, most importantly, provides a sense of unified support for the patient. Ultimately, these components must all come together to ensure compliance and long term health in childhood asthma patients.
