Use of a symbolic label to enhance learning about asthma medications for elementary school children

Asthma is the most common serious chronic illness in children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1996). Asthma education has been found to increase the ability of children and their parents to effectively manage their asthma and decrease their morbidity (Evans et al., 1997). Asthma medications are not marked in any way to distinguish between inhalers for control and inhalers for acute symptoms, and are labelled with their generic name, brand name, or both. The names are often long and confusing. The control inhaler will not help to open the airways in an asthma attack. Children need to know which inhaler will help them when they have trouble breathing.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the addition of a symbolic label to bronchodilator inhalers facilitated learning about which inhaler to use for asthma attacks in an elementary school-based asthma education program. The method included a pretest-posttest design involving two groups of inner-city children with asthma in Erie, PA. Both the control and the experimental group received asthma education at school using the A+ Asthma Club curriculum, including oral instructions about their asthma medications. This curriculum is designed to be culturally sensitive for inner-city children. The experimental group added a star sticker to the bronchodilator inhaler to remind them to use this inhaler when they have trouble breathing. Children identified their inhaler more often by the star, the color, or the look of the inhaler than by the name, even after individual instruction.