Chaney

• Background

  Asthma is a chronic condition that affects about 1 in 10 people. Even though there are treatments for asthma, the problem is that some people (particularly little children) do not use inhalers properly.
• Aim

  To see if operant conditioning could be used to encourage children to want to use their inhalers, and when they do; use it correctly
• The Funhaler

  • Positive reinforcement - the added reward of spinner and whistle
  • Negative reinforcement - the inhaler takes away asthma symptoms
• Sample

  • 32 children from Australia
  • 22 boys and 10 girls
  • aged 1 1/2 to 6 years
  • Recruited from seven paediatric or GP clinics within a 51KM radius of Perth
• Procedure - step one

  • Parents were contacted by phone before being visited at home.
  • Written, informed consent was filled in a questionnaire about their current inhaler spacer device (either Aerochamber or Breath-a-tech)
• Procedure - step two

  • Parents were given a Funhaler to use with their child for 2 weeks
• Procedure - step 3

  • After two weeks, parents were contacted again and given a questionnaire to fill in (this one asking them about the Funhaler spacer device)
• Finding - Behaviour

  • 50% of children had achieved the desired four or more breath cycles per delivery with their previous asthma inhaler device
  • 80% of children achieved this with the Funhaler spacer device
• Findings - attitudes

  • 10% of parents had said they were completely happy with their child's previous inhaler spacer device
  • 61% of parents said they were happy about the Funhaler spacer device