Asthma represents one of the most important chronic diseases of childhood in terms of its impact of normal childhood development as well as expense to parents and the health care system. Self management is seen as an integral part of the care of asthma, and novel methods to reach children are needed. This proposal taps the talents of a group of professional artists and writers with a long time experience in both educational and entertainment industry who will develop, with guidance from a group of experienced asthma specialists, an attractive educational comic book on asthma management. The information contained in the publication will provide children aged 7 to 12 with information to help prevent and control exacerbations of their disease. To evaluate the success of this publication children with and without asthma will be assessed by small group interviews to judge the comprehension and acceptability of the material. Following distribution of the publication, acceptability and knowledge gained will be assessed by parental questionnaire and efforts to assess reported changes in the homes of children with asthma. This effort is looked upon as Phase I project that will lead to the development of an 18-24 minute video that can be used both in health care provider settings or, for nominal cost, in the child's individual video at home.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:The production of an attractive comic book could lead to distribution through the pharmaceutical company who would pay a premium for the right to distribute. A successful Droduced video could then be shown on closed circuit television in hosDital and outDatient clinics, as well as be made available for home screening either as a "library copy" checked out of doctor's offices or for a nominal charge as the child's individual copy. Further development, beyond the scope of the current proposal would be the development of an interactive video for which the market would need to be assessed.National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
