The Childhood Health and Asthma Management Program

Overweight and obese (OV/OB) children with asthma are at-risk for particularly poor health outcomes including poor asthma control, higher risk of asthma-related symptoms, and decreased quality of life. Weight loss reduces asthma symptoms, improves lung function, and increases quality of life among OV/OB adults with asthma. Little research has examined the impact of weight loss on asthma outcomes in OV/OB youth, and there is little research examining weight management interventions in OV/OB children with asthma. Behavioral family-based lifestyle interventions are successful in producing weight loss in children. To our knowledge, however, there has been no systematic effort to examine the impact of these interventions on weight status and asthma outcomes, nor has there been an effort to tailor these programs to the specific needs of OV/OB children with asthma. The aims of this study are to develop and test the Childhood Health and Asthma Management Program (CHAMP), a behavioral family-based lifestyle intervention that is community-based to promote successful weight and asthma management in OV/OB children with asthma. The investigators propose to develop an intervention based on a previously developed behavioral family-based lifestyle intervention that was community-based and produced positive long term weight status changes in OV/OB children and tailor it for OV/OB children with asthma to create CHAMP. CHAMP will include asthma education and targeting unique barriers to weight management in OV/OB children with asthma. A focus group will be conducted with OV/OB children with asthma, ages 6-12, and their parent(s). Then a pilot randomized controlled trial of the CHAMP intervention with 32 OV/OB children with asthma, ages 6-12 years, and their parent(s). Families will be randomly assigned to CHAMP or a health education group. The investigators hypothesize that participants in CHAMP will have more effective weight and asthma management and child asthma outcomes compared