Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2010

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Bioinformatics and Biostatistics

Committee Chair

Myers, John Allen

Author's Keywords

Quality of life; Paired T-test; Childhood asthma; Wilcoxon signed rank test; Health hoops; Factor analysis

Subject

Healthy Hoops Kentucky; Asthma in children--Social aspects; Asthmatics--Social conditions

Abstract

Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children aged 7 to 17 years of age in the United States. An average, one of every ten school-aged children has asthma, and 13 million school days are missed each year due to asthma. Interventions to prevent or reduce the severity of asthma and to improve the quality of life among children and their families include the implementation of clinical practice guidelines, asthma care quality improvement programs, community preventive services, and other community-based approaches. The Healthy Hoops platform was used to evaluate the quality of life of children with asthma. This was first time a Healthy Hoops event was held in Kentucky and the first time quality of life was assessed at a Healthy Hoops event. Children and their parents/guardians attended the Healthy Hoops Kentucky event, in which each child received an asthma action plan. In addition, unique to Healthy Hoops Kentucky event, the quality of life of the child and their parent/guardian was assessed using Juniper's valid and reliable instruments. The thesis had three distinct study aims (1) to examine the quality of life of children with asthma as well as their parents' quality of life via the healthy hoops platform, (2) to investigate the feasibility of using the healthy hoops platform as a mechanism to assess the quality of life of children with asthma and their parents, and (3) to evaluate if the current advocated statistical techniques for analysis are most appropriate. In addition, the thesis develops a study design that would allow us to compare Passport participates who took part in the 2008 event (cases) with Passport members in 2008 who did not participate in the 2008 event (controls) over time; testing for differences in changes in quality of life and level of health care utilization over time. Permission from Passport to obtain this data from non-attendees is still under review. The results of the current study suggest that the Healthy Hoops platform is an efficient way in which to assess the quality of life of children with asthma and their parents and that the children's quality of life is significantly better when compared to their parents, which contradicts earlier studies. Lastly, it is suggested that the current advocated method for analysis is not appropriate.

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