Urban Youth’s Perspectives on Asthma and Asthma Management

Background. Education is widely recognized as a valuable contribution to asthma management. Asthma’s high incidence in urban areas and the documented challenges that poor urban families face in managing asthma make effective education particularly important. However, its potential is undercut when the educational content is not relevant to learners’ experiences with, and beliefs about, asthma. This article focuses on urban adolescents’ understandings of asthma with the goal of identifying directions for more effective and relevant asthma education. Method. This qualitative study employed a culturally relevant stance with the goal of accessing participants’ beliefs and theories about asthma and asthma management. Ongoing focus group meetings with urban adolescents were used as well as semistructured one-on-one interviews. Findings. Data demonstrated that participants understood asthma triggers and symptoms. Data trends also identified participants’ belief that asthma is a condition that cannot be controlled, a view that conflicts with asthma therapy goals. Discussions. Because participants’ understandings were grounded in their experiential knowledge, top-down, information-focused education is unlikely to be effective in changing participants’ beliefs. These findings highlight the necessity for educational approaches that assess what learners already know about asthma, their experiences with the condition, and the understandings they have formulated about asthma. Educators can then build on learners’ knowledge in ways that effectively teach important information about this complex condition.