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Asthma Is A Chronic Lung Disease

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Asthma, as defined by the NIH, “is a chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways. Asthma causes recurring periods of wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing.” (National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute [NHLBI], 2015). There are risk factors that may predispose a child to developing asthma, which include having allergies, eczema, and/or having parents who have asthma. Asthma is not a disease that is preventable. (NHLBI, 2015). The risk or likelihood that someone would have asthma is based on the biological makeup of the individual that would predispose them to the disease, rather than behavioral, environmental, or even social factors.…show more content…
(CDC, 2015).
Prevention of asthma is not the focus of interventions since it is not a preventable disease, but rather the focus is to intervene with the management of the disease. There are some protective factors that can be employed so that the occurrence of asthma attacks is reduced, or at least, well managed. Once someone has been identified as having asthma, the goal is to manage it well so that there are as few asthma attacks as possible. In 2008, the National Asthma Control Initiative (NACI) was created. The goal of creating the NACI is to have the ability to work with different partners throughout the community to successfully put asthma guidelines into action beginning with the home and moving out into the community, which may include schools, health care settings, as well as other parts of the community. (National Asthma Control Initiative [NACI], 2011). Primary interventions focus on preventing the disease before it occurs. Because asthma is not a preventable disease, the evidenced based interventions in place are more representative of interventions at secondary and tertiary levels than primary. Community health nursing health promotion interventions for asthma at the secondary level are largely aimed at diagnosing those with asthma and managing the disease.
The first step of asthma intervention is having it diagnosed. Usually either the primary care provider diagnoses the
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