The Design and Evaluation of the Asthma Knowledge Test for Parents as a Brief E-Health Online Intervention

This cross-sectional mixed-method study with a small sample of 62 mothers of children with asthma is a pilot evaluating a new brief online e-health intervention: The Asthma Knowledge Test for Parents (TAKT-40), with all true answers. The TAKT-40 was highly recommended (77.4%) by mothers to others parents with children with asthma. The sample had a mean number of children of 2.31, a mean age of 39.13, with 66.1% (n= 41) White, 24.2% Black, and 9.7% (n=6) Hispanic—with 88.7% living with a partner (n=55). The mean level of education was between Some College and Master’s degrees, with 61.3% employed (n=38) and a mean annual household income for between $100,000 and $199,999. The mean age for children was 9.06, with a mean of 7.51 years since the asthma diagnosis, with 98.4% (n=61) prescribed medication, and 80.6% (n=50) currently taking it. Suggestive of the TAKT-40 being a potential brief online intervention of value, paired t--tests showed: mother’s self-ratings for level of knowledge were higher after they had taken the TAKT-40 with all true answers when compared to self-ratings of knowledge before taking it; and, mother’s self-efficacy for taking care of their child with asthma and helping their child achieve asthma control was higher after they had taken the TAKT-40 when compared to self-ratings after taking it. While controlling for social desirability, backwards stepwise regression showed (1) a higher asthma knowledge (on the TAKT-40), was significantly predicted by: Higher annual household income; Lower number of children; Greater extent of negative impacts from asthma on child, parent, and family—30.0% of the variance predicted with this model. Secondly, backwards stepwise regression found (2) a high asthma self-efficacy (on the Scale 2-Asthma Self-efficacy) for the three key behaviors was significantly predicted by: Fewer Barriers to Child’s Health Care—with 60.0% of variance being predicted. Qualitative data supplemented the quantitative findings, supporting the resultant implications and recommendations.