Asthma is a common childhood illness causing wheezing, coughing and difficulty in breathing. Guidelines on the care of children with asthma recommend that children and families should receive education on how to manage their condition. The current review looked at 12 studies with a total of 2342 children comparing asthma education received at home with either usual care or a less intensive home-based education programme. Eleven out of 12 trials were conducted in North America, within urban or suburban settings involving socioeconomically disadvantaged families. A table summarising some of the key components of the education programmes is presented in the review.
The included studies varied in the characteristics of children (e.g. age, severity of asthma), the education delivered and the way each outcome was reported. This made it difficult to compare the results and provide overall conclusions and we did not pool results for most of the outcomes. There was also diversity in the findings of the individual trials. We were able to combine the results of two studies reporting the average number of emergency department visits per child, which was not different at six months between the home education group and the group receiving the usual care. Only one trial contributed to our other primary outcome, exacerbations (flare-ups) requiring a course of oral corticosteroids. Hospital admissions also demonstrated wide variation between trials with significant changes in some trials in both directions. Quality of life improved in both education and control groups over time.