CAMP Air: Efficacy and Cost-effectiveness in Urban Adolescents

This measure, which is completed by the adolescents, assesses the adolescent's level of asthma control over the past week using 5-item version. The overall score is the mean of all questions; range = 0 - 6; lower scores indicate better control.

This measure assesses the adolescent's number of asthma-related visits to a medical provider for urgent or immediate treatment, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations over 3 months. Completed by adolescents. Higher counts indicate more urgent health care utilization.

This measure assesses the number of steps adolescents take to prevent the onset of symptoms. Completed by the adolescents. Score range = 0 - 9; higher scores indicate better asthma self-care.

This measure assesses the number of steps adolescents take to care for symptoms once they start. Completed by the adolescents. Score range = 0 - 7; higher scores indicate better asthma self-care.

This measure assesses the confidence adolescents have in caring for their asthma. Completed by adolescents. Score range = 0 - 7; higher scores indicate better asthma management self-efficacy.

Adolescents report the names of asthma medication they take, which will used to determine if controller medications are currently used.

The investigator will use spirometry to assess how well adolescents' lungs work. Spirometry is a test that measures how much air people can hold in their lungs as well as how much air they can exhale, or blow out, and how fast they can blow it out. The investigator will calculate the FEV1/FVC ratio, which is a proportion of how much air a person can exhale from the lung in the first second relative to the total amount of air that comes out during a full exhale. Forced expiratory volume (FEV) is the amount of air exhaled from the lung in one second and forced vital capacity (FVC) is the total amount of air that comes out during a full exhale. A ratio of 0.75 indicates the lungs are working well.

The investigators will use spirometry to assess how well air is flowing out of the smaller airways of the lungs via FEF25%-75%, or the maximum mid-expiratory flow rate. Forced expiratory flow (FEF) is the speed at which air comes out of the lungs during the middle portion of a person's full exhale. FEF25-75% is the average speed at which air flows out of the lungs from the moment a person has exhaled 25% of their full breathe to the moment they have exhaled 75% of their full breathe; it is expressed as a percentage. FEF25-75% values of more than 60% suggest normal airflow.

The investigators will use spirometry to assess how difficult it is for the adolescent's lungs to work when there is any indication that the lungs are not working properly. This will be measured as FEV1% predicted (FEV1% pred), and will be calculated by dividing the FEV1% of the adolescent by the average FEV1% in the population of adolescents with similar characteristics, such as age and sex. FEV1% is the FEV1/FVC absolute ratio expressed as a percentage. FEV1 is the amount of air exhaled from the lung in one second and FVC is the total amount of air that comes out during a full exhale. FEV1% pred values of 69 or less indicate moderate to severe difficulties in lung functioning; values of 70 or greater indicate mild difficulties in lung functioning.

Adolescents complete the Paediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire, which measures how they have felt in the past week because of their asthma. Comprised of 3 sub scales, which are combined for an overall mean score ranging from 1 - 7; higher scores indicate better pediatric asthma quality of life.

Using the list of medications obtained from adolescents, the investigator will determine if there is use of oral steroids. If so, adolescents will also be asked how many times those medications were used over a period of 5 to 7 days in 3 months. Oral steroids are medications used to reduce acute inflammation and swelling in the lungs when other asthma medications are not working. A burst refers to a single period of 5 to 7 days in which a person takes oral steroids.

Adolescents report the number of days they had asthma symptoms over the last 2 weeks.

Adolescents report on how many nights asthma symptoms disrupted sleep or caused wakening over 2 weeks.

Adolescents report on the number of days usual activities could not be carried out over 2 weeks due to asthma.

Adolescents report on the number of days school was missed due to asthma over 2 weeks.

Adolescents reporting any school absences due to asthma in the last 2 weeks will also be asked how typical this attendance was over 3 months.

The investigators will compute adolescents' total number of school absences, regardless of the reason, from attendance records obtained from each school.