Coping Peer Intervention for Adherence

The Coping Peer Support is delivered at weekly group meetings over the 10 week active treatment phase. The Coping Peer Support consists of: group support, coping peer group problem solving, and development and recording of Coping Peer Asthma Messages. More specifically, a social worker facilitates a peer group discussion of barriers to taking their daily inhaled steroids, and ways to overcome these barriers. The social worker also facilitates peer recording of messages by the participants encouraging each other to take their daily inhaled steroid medication.

The attention control group will receive Doctor Asthma Messages delivered during the 10 week active treatment phase. The content and number of these messages will be equivalent to those received by the intervention group. These messages are developed and recorded by an Allergist/Immunologist. The participants in the attention control group will listen to these Doctor Asthma Messages, between their favorite music tracks on their MP3 player, as they go about their day-to-day activities.

The Coping Peer Asthma Messages developed and recorded by study participants for each other at the weekly coping peer group meetings will be placed on intervention group participants' MP3 players. These Coping Peer Asthma Messages will be played on their MP3 players, between their favorite music tracks, during the course of their daily routines. This infuses the coping peer support from the coping peer group meetings into the adolescents' daily routines.

A member of the study team meets individually with each participant at baseline to teach proper use of a peak flow meter and spacer.

Participants receive an MP3 player (iPod Shuffle) in the baseline period. Participants receives clean, radio-edited music tracks of their choice in the baseline period and 10 week active treatment period.