Educational interventions in childhood asthma: A systematic review

Objective: To analyze educational interventions in pediatric asthmatic patients to achieve an adequate inhalation technique and improve their self-management. Design: Systematic review based on the PRISMA recommendations. Data sources: Pubmed, Scopus, Cuiden, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases were reviewed.Study selection: Sixteen articles published between 2014 and 2021 were included, with access to full text, languages: English, French and Spanish and pediatric population: 0-18 years. Data extraction: Two thousand three hundred and thirteen children were participated. The variables analyzed were: level of care, type of intervention, correct performance of the inhalation technique, follow-up of the technique, delivery of written recommendations, professional-educator category, variables related to respiratory pathology, school absenteeism, quality of life and economic costs. Results: The health care level was primary, hospital and community care, where specialist doctors, nurses and pharmacists stood out as educators. The most prevalent educational interventions are on-site demonstration and delivery of recommendations or multimedia inter-ventions. Several articles report that asthma education is not carried out correctly, others state that their technique improves after the intervention, but most of them highlight the importance of periodic review of the technique.Conclusions: The authors report improvement in the inhalation technique in all of them, as well as greater self-management of the disease and adherence to treatment. It is necessary to intensify the education of patients in the correct handling of the devices, and the follow-up and subsequent review to optimize the control of the disease.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This systematic review analyzes educational interventions in pediatric asthmatic patients and highlights the importance of correct inhalation technique and self-management education in improving the treatment outcomes for these patients. On-site demonstration and delivery of recommendations or multimedia interventions are the most prevalent types of educational interventions. Results show the significance of periodic review of the technique.