Call-Center Based Disease Management of Pediatric Asthmatics

There are no population based prospective randomized controlled trials comparing exclusive telephonic disease management in pediatric asthma. Determine the effectiveness of exclusively telephonic disease management on a population of pediatric military family members. Primary endpoints were patient and care giver quality of life QOL, inhaled short acting beta agonist use, pulmonary function FEV1, and health care utilization and costs. Patients were enrolled at three DoD military treatment facilities in a similar geographic region. There control group received usual care compared with an intervention group that received a remote call-based asthma disease management program utilizing proactive education and monitoring in a series of predetermined calls in conjunction with a 247 helpadvice line. Comparisons were made for time 0, 6, and 12 months for QOL and FEV1 while medication use, health care utilization and costs were compared for the 12 month period pre-enrollment vs the 12 month of the study period. Data was analyzed as intention to treat via a three-factor ANOVA treatment, entry severity, time. Results A total of 452 patients were enrolled, 222 control and 230 intervention. While there were significant differences among the variables with regard to severity and over time, there were no significant effects between the intervention and control groups. Conclusions There is no evidence that exclusively telephonic disease management improved outcomes in pediatric military family members over usual care.