Women of Color and Asthma Control

在哮喘的研究和实践努力继续忽视美国最脆弱的亚群体之一，少数族裔妇女。有色人种女性，尤其是非裔美国人，在成人中承担着显著不成比例的哮喘负担。然而，没有任何严格的干预试验来帮助他们应对他们的特殊挑战。拟议的随机对照试验将评估420名患有哮喘的非洲裔美国妇女的创新干预措施。这将是第一个解决影响哮喘的特定文化因素和女性性别对控制的影响的研究。它将使用一种高度量身定制的电话咨询方法，旨在促进与临床医生的伙伴关系，解决特定的哮喘管理问题，并确定经常被妇女本人和卫生保健系统误解或忽视的重要影响。它将密切关注过敏在哮喘管理中的作用，因为非洲裔美国人的患者患过敏性哮喘的风险更高。

Research and practice efforts in asthma continue to overlook one of the most vulnerable subgroups of Americans, minority women. Women of color, especially African Americans, bear a significantly disproportionate burden of asthma among adults. However, no rigorous trial of an intervention to assist them with their particular challenges can be located. The proposed randomized controlled trial will evaluate an innovative intervention in 420 African American women with asthma. It will be the first to address both specific cultural factors affecting asthma and the influence of female sex and gender on control. It will use a highly tailored, telephone counseling approach designed to foster partnership with the clinician, resolution of specific asthma management problems, and identification of important contributing influences often misunderstood or ignored by women themselves as well as the health care system. It will attend closely to the role of allergy in asthma management as patients in the African American population have been shown to be at greater risk for allergic asthma. Data will be collected at baseline, 12, and 24 months by telephone interview and from medical records. The hypotheses of the research are that women in the intervention group when compared to the control group will: ¿ Have higher levels of asthma-related quality of life; ¿ Experience fewer symptoms of asthma; ¿ Use emergency department services for asthma less frequently and need urgent care in a physician's office less often; ¿ Be hospitalized for asthma less frequently. The intervention aims to reduce the burden of asthma as carried by a large subgroup of the adult population. It employs state of the art asthma management strategies and creative means to reach and help patients at high risk of asthma exacerbations and health care use