Asthma affects almost ten percent of children and is the most common health condition reported by North Carolina public schools. Latino children have higher rates of uncontrolled asthma and make more asthma-related emergency department visits than other children. Is it because they aren’t using their medication device correctly? So far, no studies have been done to evaluate Latino children to see if they are using their asthma device correctly.
Now a new feasibility pilot study is being sponsored by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill to determine whether the “Expanding Networks for Latinos through Community Engagement” (ENLaCE) study now recruiting Latino children into a randomized controlled trial will find the answers. ENLaCE is comprised of over 15 organizations in the Greensboro North Carolina area.
To help solve the problem, “Meducation”, a NIH-funded project developed by Polyglot Systems, Inc. has developed asthma device technique videos in both Spanish and English and believes that the videos would help the Greensboro Latino community.
An estimated one hundred boys and girls between eight years to sixteen years will be recruited from two pediatric ENLaCE clinics in the area to be in the study. One group will be randomly assigned to watch device technique videos in Spanish or English after a regularly scheduled medical visit. Their device technique will be assessed before and after the visit. The other control group will watch a two minute nutrition video.
The study (NCT01641211) is due to start July 2012 but has not yet opened participant recruitment. For more information email Delesha Carpenter PhD at dmcarpenter@unc.edu.
In another development to help patients, the Western New York Beacon Community has partnered with “Meducation” to develop a Health 2.0 standalone web-based tool capable of generating patient centered medical instructions that are easier to read, understand, and available in the patient’s preferred language.
For example, Medicor Associates in Western New York one of the pilot sites is working with the Beacon Community through a Cooperative Agreement Program to fully utilize Meducation’s technology. Other partners involved include HEALTHeLINK and the Western New York County of Chautauqua.
