Adolescents' Disease Empowerment and Persistency Technology for Asthma

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The applicant is an Allergist/lmmunologist who seeks to develop a career as an independent investigator of behavioral interventions that promote the health of urban African American adolescents with persistent asthma. The proposed intervention focuses on peer support, coping peer group problem-solving sessions to record messages about barriers to taking controller medications for asthma and ways to overcome these barriers, and the delivery of these messages developed by study participants themselves to each other throughout the week between music tracks on an MPS player known as the Media Hub. The messages are delivered via the Adolescents' Disease Empowerment and Persistency Technology (ADEPT) for asthma Network Control System to the Media Hub. The career development plan provides further education, training, and mentorship needed to conduct behavioral controlled trials of culturally sensitive, technologybased interventions to promote sustained change. The research plan benefits from prior pilot work, proposes a conceptual model for increasing adherence, and then tests each step in this model. The primary mentor for this award. Dr. Lynda H. Powell, is an expert in behavioral trial methodology and will ensure the applicant applies appropriate theory and methodology to test her conceptual model. The Co-Mentor and Advisors will provide additional guidance in the specific areas of qualitative research, behavioral and social principles of behavior change, and adherence. The research plan aims to: identify ways to improve the ability of ADEPT and other newly proposed technology based platforms to increase adherence; conduct a "proof of concept" pilot study of the newly refined intervention; and conduct a behavioral controlled trial testing the efficacy of ADEPT to improve adherence. At the end of this award, the applicant will be uniquely positioned to submit an ROl grant application to conduct a large-scale behavioral randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of the ADEPT intervention to improve important health outcomes in urban African American adolescents with asthma. RELEVANCE (See instructions): Alarming rates of emergency room visits and hospitalizations for asthma in inner-city African American adolescents require urgent intervention. The ultimate goal of this research is to reduce the morbidity and mortality of asthma in this population through the use of peer support, enhanced by a culturally sensitive, technology-based MP3 player platform aimed at increasing adherence to daily controller medications. (End of Abstract)