Factors associated with preventive asthma care in inner-city children

The goal of this cross-sectional study was to determine if the caregiver's quality of life was associated with the child receiving appropriate preventive asthma care (2 or more preventive asthma care visits per year) in a sample of inner-city children with moderate to severe persistent asthma. Our findings confirm that children with moderate to severe persistent asthma are not receiving adequate preventive asthma care despite experiencing frequent asthma symptoms. Having a recent emergency department (ED) visit and increased number of school absences due to asthma were the strongest factors associated with these children receiving guideline-based preventive asthma care. However, for a subgroup of children without recent ED care, we found that low caregiver education level, increased school absences, and decreased caregiver's quality of life, albeit a trend, were associated with the child's receiving adequate preventive asthma care. This suggests that in a subgroup of children receiving adequate preventive care, other issues beyond basic asthma management may need to be addressed.