Given that most adults spend many of their waking hours at work, worksites are seen as a potentially useful place to encourage employees to learn how to manage asthma and prevent asthma attacks. Worksites may include interventions focused on the individual, the physical environment (e.g., clean indoor air) and/or changes in policies to support parents who have children with asthma (e.g., insurance benefits, flexible working hours). Some programs and policies have been offered by management, while others have been developed jointly through labor/management negotiations. There are also interventions that have been developed to build support for employees or their families who have asthma.
For example, you might choose to improve ventilation, develop an informational pamphlet or bring in health educators to inform employees about asthma. In developing your intervention, it is important to consider the feasibility of engaging in these various strategies and to consider alternatives as appropriate. For example, many small businesses find it useful, and cost effective, to work with existing community programs to support employees or their families with asthma off-site. It is also important that the opportunities created are flexible enough to meet the needs of a wide variety of employees.
Worksite-based interventions are most effective when links to interventions in other settings are established in order prevent or manage asthma both inside and outside of the work day:
- Community-based (e.g., sponsor community events to increase awareness in the community about the harmful effects of asthma)
- School-based (e.g., develop flexible work leave policies that make parent participation in school activities an option for employees)
- Faith-based (e.g., allow faith-based organizations to use worksite facilities or equipment to host events that provide education or skill-based training on asthma management)
- Health care-based (e.g., institute worksite policies that provide health insurance benefits to employees or families who have asthma)
- Home-based (e.g., encourage parents to serve as role models by promoting healthy living)
Before You Begin…
There are a number of planning steps that lead to a variety of specific intervention strategies. For assistance with these planning steps, use the navigation bar at the end of this page. Intervention MICA provides you with tools to help you:
- Create a partnership with other individuals, groups and organizations within your community.
- Learn about your readiness to plan your intervention (readiness and preparation).
- Work on your organizational or community capacity, budget, funding sources, social determinants of health, or cultural competence (capacity).
- Prepare your evaluation in order to figure out how to measure the success of your intervention.
- Maintain your momentum through information, tools and resources to assist you in sustaining your partnership and intervention over time.
Below are specific intervention strategies for worksite-based interventions. If you will be working in other settings (e.g., communities, schools, faith-based organizations, health care facilities or homes), then you will want to refer to these other settings for more information.
Intervention Strategies
Even though the intervention strategies that may be used are described separately below, each of these strategies is most effective when it is combined with other strategies. For example, changing employees’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about asthma may do little to prevent asthma attacks unless the worksite has insurance benefits that cover asthma medications. Likewise, the worksite will need to have managers and administrators who understand the benefits to employees and who can answer questions related to the workplace policies.
As described in Readiness and Preparation, it is important to make sure that the intervention strategies are created to represent and address the needs of the Community of Interest. This may include paying attention to how different groups think about asthma symptoms and their management. Furthermore, an intervention works best when there is an attempt to address language, reading level, and cultural barriers (see Cultural Competence for more information). For information on different populations that have received asthma interventions, go to Asthma Prevention & Management in Different Populations.
--Increasing knowledge and skills, influencing attitudes and beliefs
Individual Information Exchange intervention strategies have been developed to increase individual knowledge and skills as well as to change attitudes and beliefs about asthma. More specifically, these interventions may provide personally tailored information about the benefits of having an asthma management plan (e.g., better response to asthma symptoms) and the triggers for asthma episodes (e.g., allergens, pollutants) or ways to identify if an individual has asthma. Tailored information may take into account the person’s readiness for change or specific interests in order to help them control their asthma. These interventions are also useful in helping individuals develop skills to seek assistance from others when needed or address other risk factors for asthma (e.g., smoking, obesity).
Mass Media Campaigns are interventions that address messages about asthma to large audiences. The campaigns are designed to increase knowledge, influence attitudes and beliefs and change behavior. Messages are communicated using newspapers, radio, television, posters, pamphlets, brochures, newsletters, videos, direct mail and billboards with generic, untailored information.
Group Education Sessions are interventions focused on provision of information and are delivered through health education classes or group sessions. They provide education and skills related to decision-making and usually have multiple components, including: asthma management, the health risks of not having appropriate health care, skill-building techniques, role playing, lectures, lessons, etc. Health education classes are designed to affect behavior change through personal and behavioral factors that provide participants with the skills they need to make informed decisions. Because of the interactive nature of group settings, participants have the opportunity to learn new information, ask questions, get support from other participants and the facilitator or instructor and practice new skills.
Provider Education Systems are interventions targeting health care providers (doctors, nurses, clinicians, health practitioners) to encourage them to educate their patients regarding the importance of asthma management. Provider education systems include educating the providers on the importance of talking to their patients, reminding providers to talk to their patients during routine visits and offering feedback to providers regarding retrospective assessments of their performance in delivering asthma advice or assistance to patients.
--Providing social support
Supportive Relationships are interventions that build on social or interpersonal relationships (e.g., family members, co-workers, friends, peers, role models) in order to provide a support system for behavior change. This may include increasing the information individuals have about asthma (informational support), the skills and abilities people have to manage their asthma (tangible support) and the sense of acceptance and belonging among people with asthma (appraisal support). Examples of social support strategies include: buddy systems, group discussions/therapy, partner support, peer leaders, parent-child interactions or others.
Group Education Sessions (see description above)
Provider Education Systems (see description above)
--Changing public policies and the community environment
Asthma-related policies are interventions that attempt to reduce environmental triggers (e.g., allergens, pollutants) and enhance access to appropriate health care (e.g., school nurses, inhalers).