Potentially Effective Interventions for Asthma

Control of asthma requires appropriate diagnosis, effective use of medications, knowledge and understanding of the causes and consequences of the disease, and modifications of environmental exposures and behaviors that may negatively impact the disease. In addition to what occurs in the clinician’s office, a number of interventions have been demonstrated to be potentially effective in improving asthma control and are generally implemented in community settings with groups of people who have asthma.

This site provides information on potentially effective interventions for asthma control, including methodology for identification of the interventions, results, lessons learned, information on the interventions themselves, a bibliography of reviewed literature, and case studies of several interventions.

What is the purpose of this site?

Sifting through the large number of publications on asthma interventions and identifying those potentially effective is a time- consuming and exacting task. The information on this site can help you with that task. This information is provided for your use; however, there is no endorsement by CDC of any of the interventions or information on the site.

Who might find this information useful?

• Medical clinic, public health, and school personnel who work with people with asthma.
• Members of state or community asthma coalitions

How to use the information?

1. All users should read the short background section in order to understand the material on the site.
2. If interested only in interventions for specific age groups or specific intervention locations (e.g. schools), go to the section “Information on Potentially Effective Interventions”, select the target population of interest, and, then, the intervention location of interest. Summaries of published effective intervention research are provided.
3. If interested in knowing what literature was examined for inclusion as a potentially effective intervention, select "Bibliography of Reviewed Literature".
4. If interested in details of specific effective interventions that have been implemented in community settings, select the specific case study of interest.