Research in Medicine

Background: Asthma is one of the most common childhood diseases and the first cause of school absentness and third cause of hospitalization in the children under 15 years. The goal of this study was to assess the effect of symptoms-based “written action plan” on frequency of emergency department visits and school absentness in children with the age of 7-18 years.
Materials and methods: This was a randomized control trial, which was performed on 60 asthmatic children that visited in a pulmonary specific clinic in Ahvaz (2012). After perform matching (age, sex and duration of disease), participants were divided randomly in control and case groups. The case group received the symptoms-based written action plan. The data were analyzed with SPSS and analytic (paired t-test, independent t-test) and descriptive (mean...) statically methods.
Results: There was a decrease in the mean and SD score in the frequency of school absentness (0.03±0.18) and emergency department visits (0.06±0.25) in case group. In comparison of two groups after intervention, there was a significant statically difference in frequency of school absentness (p=0.007) and emergency department visit (p= 0.0001).
Conclusion: According to our results, use of symptoms-based written action plan can be effective in decrease of emergency department visits and school absentness frequency.