Abstract:
Asthma, a chronic illness, is a crucial health problem, particularly in school-age children. They should have appropriated self-regulation which could result in good health behaviors and ability to control the severity of illness. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study aimed to determine the effects of the Self-Regulation Program on health behaviors and pulmonary function of school-age children with asthma. The participants included school-age children with asthma who came to receive the follow up treatment at the hospital, Pranakornsriayutthaya province in 2016. Those who met the study inclusion criteria were randomly assigned into the experimental and the control groups of 25 students for each group. The experimental group received the Self-Regulation Program developed based on the selfregulation concept of Bandura comprising 3 steps: 1) Self-observation, 2) Judgment-process, and 3) self-reaction, while the control group received usual nursing care. Research instruments using for data collection were the health behaviors questionnaire with its reliability of .81, and the pulmonary function test. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics t-test. The results revealed that the mean scores of health behaviors of the participants after receiving the Self-Regulation Program were significantly higher than those who received usual nursing care (M = 134.50 , M = 116.50., t= -9.89, p < .001). The average pulmonary function of the participants after receiving the program were also significantly higher than those who received usual nursing care (M = 72.56, M = 68.60, t = -8.13, p < .001). These findings suggest that this Self-Regulation Program is effective. Pediatric nurses and health care providers who are responsible for health of school-age children could obtain this program to use and apply for contextual appropriateness. Consequently, good health behaviors and improve pulmonary function would be achieved.