Background: Asthma can interfere with school attendance and engagement. School health programs are central to asthma management. Case identification is limited by reliance on parent-completed forms, which are often missing. This project tested a low-burden screening algorithm to stratify students based on priority for nurse outreach at 2 large,…

Theater-based approaches have been implemented globally as a health education and behavior change strategy for decades. Studies have shown that live theater performances can engage an audience and influence the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of audience members. Moreover, literature has shown that adolescents find theater-based interventions…

Background: Asthma places a heavy burden on Chicago's schoolchildren, particularly in low-income, minority communities. Recently, our group developed a 10-week afterschool program, the Student Asthma Research Team (START), which successfully engaged high school youth in a Photovoice investigation of factors impacting their asthma at school and in…

Much of the literature on asthma is based on non-school data collected primarily in clinics. As asthma is given greater national attention, it is crucial to examine the educational consequences of the disease in the context of school where children spend much of their days. This study examines the educational impact of asthma on elementary and…

Background: Children with asthma experience more absenteeism from school compared with their nonasthma peers. Excessive absenteeism is related to lower student grades, psychological, social, and educational adjustment. Less is known about the relationship between the presence of asthma and the academic achievement in school-aged children. Since…