Barriers and facilitators to self‐management of asthma in adolescents: An interview study to inform development of a novel intervention

Abstract

Our study highlights that healthcare professionals may need to consider a range of psychological and contextual issues influencing adolescents' ability to effectively self-manage their asthma, in particular, how they implement treatment routines and the understanding that adolescents have of their condition and treatments. Crucially, healthcare professionals need to consider how this information is communicated and ensure they facilitate open, inclusive, two-way consultations. From this more comprehensive understanding, we have developed interventional strategies that healthcare professionals can utilize to empower adolescents to improve their asthma self-management.

Understanding the challenges faced by adolescents and young adults with allergic conditions: A systematic review

“…Interpersonal factors refer to social relationships and communication processes with family, peers and healthcare providers. [80][81][82]…”

Mixed‐methods content and sentiment analysis of adolescents’ voice diaries describing daily experiences with asthma and self‐management decision‐making

“…While teens sometimes failed to recognize symptoms (eg coughing), they more often downplayed the experience. Thus, an important step in changing reporting patterns may be modifying awareness of the range of asthma symptoms and addressing beliefs about the potential importance of these symptoms …”

“…Thus, there is a clear need to improve symptom recognition in this population as a means to achieving better outcomes . Most interventions targeting self‐monitoring have met with little or indeterminate success, which is often attributed to adolescent cognitive immaturity, forgetfulness, or lack of interest . Yet, it may be that inability to modify teen's self‐monitoring practices is partially attributable to insufficient understanding of the root causes of their behaviour .…”

Why we should focus on adolescents and young adults

“…Our recently published systematic reviews 1,2 have documented the current state of the evidence. Healthcare professionals need to take into account the challenges faced by this age group around changing personal relationships, education and employment problems plus depression and anxiety 1,3,4 . More positively, there are some data on interventions for this age group 2 albeit much of the evidence is provisional.…”