Table 1.
Baseline Sociodemographic and Health Characteristics for 221 Children by Group Status*
| Characteristic | CON Group
(n = 111) |
INT Group
(n = 110) |
Total
(N = 221) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Race/ethnicity | |||
| African American | 103 (92.8) | 94 (85.5) | 197 (89.1) |
| White or other | 8 (7.2) | 16 (14.5) | 24 (10.9) |
| Male sex | 70 (63.1) | 75 (68.2) | 145 (65.6) |
| Child age (range, 2–9 y) † | 4.5 (2.0) | 4.6 (2.1) | 4.5 (2.1) |
| Medicaid health insurance | 87 (78.4) | 89 (80.9) | 176 (79.6) |
| Parent or guardian‡ | |||
| Mother | 99 (89.2) | 101 (91.8) | 200 (90.5) |
| Legal guardian or other relative | 11 (9.9) | 9 (8.2) | 20 (9.0) |
| Parent or guardian educational level | |||
| Some HS | 23 (20.7) | 30 (27.3) | 53 (24.0) |
| HS graduate or GED | 44 (39.6) | 41 (37.3) | 85 (38.5) |
| Some college or trade school or college graduate | 44 (39.6) | 39 (35.5) | 83 (37.6) |
| Mother employed outside the home | 72 (64.9) | 55 (50.0) | 127 (57.5) |
| Annual household income, $ | |||
| <20 000 | 56 (50.5) | 50 (45.5) | 106 (48.0) |
| ≥20 000 | 47 (42.3) | 42 (38.2) | 89 (40.3) |
| Asthma severity | |||
| Mild intermittent | 5 (4.5) | 5 (4.5) | 10 (4.5) |
| Mild persistent | 65 (58.6) | 69 (62.7) | 134 (60.6) |
| Moderate persistent | 27 (24.3) | 19 (17.3) | 46 (20.8) |
| Severe persistent | 14 (12.6) | 17 (15.5) | 31 (14.0) |
| Daytime symptom frequency | |||
| <2 times per week | 43 (38.7) | 46 (41.8) | 89 (40.3) |
| ≥3 times per week | 43 (38.7) | 44 (40.0) | 87 (39.4) |
| Daily, not continual | 20 (18.0) | 13 (11.8) | 33 (14.9) |
| Continual | 5 (4.5) | 7 (6.4) | 12 (5.4) |
| Night symptom frequency | |||
| <2 times per month | 41 (36.9) | 41 (37.3) | 82 (37.1) |
| ≥3 times per month | 38 (34.2) | 41 (37.3) | 79 (35.7) |
| >1 time per week | 21 (18.9) | 16 (14.5) | 37 (16.7) |
| Daily symptoms | 11 (9.9) | 12 (10.9) | 23 (10.4) |
| Health care use | |||
| No. of hospitalizations for asthma† | 0.41 (0.8) | 0.34 (0.6) | 0.38 (0.7) |
| No. of ED visits for asthma† | 2.0 (2.9) | 1.9 (2.5) | 2.0 (2.7) |
| No. of regular or nonurgent visits for asthma† | 2.8 (2.5) | 3.3 (3.0) | 3.0 (2.8) |
| Specialty care for asthma in the past 2 y | 57 (51.4) | 50 (45.5) | 107 (48.4) |
| Asthma medication use in the past 6 mo (pharmacy data) † | |||
| No. of short-acting 3-agonist prescriptions | 1.7 (1.8) | 1.8 (2.0) | 1.8 (1.9) |
| No. of oral corticosteroid prescriptions | 0.6 (0.9) | 0.6 (0.8) | 0.6 (0.9) |
| No. of inhaled corticosteroid prescriptions | 1.0 (1.5) | 0.8 (1.3) | 0.9 (1.4) |
Abbreviations: CON, standard asthma education; ED, emergency department; GED, general equivalency diploma; HS, high school; INT, asthma educational intervention.
*
Data are given as number (percentage) of each group unless otherwise indicated. Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding or because the number of children was fewer than the denominator given. At baseline, pharmacy data were available for 6 months before enrollment.
†
Data are given as mean (SD).
‡
N = 220.