Chaney

• background


  • asthma is a chronic condition that affects about 1 in 4 people in Australia . Even though there are treatment for asthma, the problem is that some people, do not use their inhalers correctly which can lead to risks to their health.
• aim


  • to see if operant conditioning could be used to encourage children to adhere to using their asthma medication
• sample


  • 32 children with asthma from Australia aged between 1.5-6 years
  • both previously used the aerochamber or breath a tech inhalers
• procedure


  • parents filled out an initial questionnaire about the standard inhaler, which measured: problems with using the inhaler, children's attitudes, parents' attitudes and how often they used it effectively
  • parents given the funhaler to use with their child for the next 2 weeks and contacted randomly by telephone and asked if they had used the funhaler the previous day
  • a second questionnaire was given to the parents to measure problems of funhaler, children and parents' attitudes and how often they used it
• results 


  • pleasure and acceptance increased with the funhaler
  • strong fear/dislike decreased
  • complete happiness increased and dislike decreased
• conclusions


  • children were more likely to use the funhaler correctly than their standard inhalers, had fewer problems with using it, and showed more positive attitudes towards it
  • this suggests operant conditioning is an effective way to encourage children to take their medication
• links to the area

  • shows children can learn behaviour through positive and negative reinforcement
  • they used the Funhaler more, and had more positive attitudes towards it compared to their standard inhalers