Media

Press Briefing on "Efficacy of Incorporating Family Therapy into Paediatric Asthma Psychoeducation Programmes"

30 Nov 2006

Date: December 1, 2006 (Friday)
Time: 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Venue: Centre on Behavioral Health, G/F, Pauline Chan Building, 10 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam Hong Kong 

Speakers & their topics include:

1. Mr. Ng Siu-man, Centre on Behavioral Health, HKU: Findings of randomized controlled trial on our newly developed group intervention

2. Dr. Albert Li, Department of Pediatrics, CUHK: Updates on etiology, epidemiology & treatment/management of asthma

3. Dr. Vivian Lou, Department of Social Work: Family therapy perspective

4. Ms. Pauline Wan, Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation: Psychosocial aspects of asthma, psychoeducational group intervention

For further media enquiries, you are also welcomed to contact Mr. Ng Siu Man (Assistant Professor, Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong) at 2589 0505 or email to ngsiuman@hku.hk.

Please find below some background information of the Study:

Efficacy of Incorporating Family Therapy into Paediatric Asthma Psychoeducation Programs Supported by Local Clinical Trial

Pediatric Asthma on the rise In the past 30 years, pediatric asthma rates have been steadily increasing worldwide. Besides providing the proper treatments and medication, educating patients and their caregivers on appropriate and effective ways in managing and caring for their illness is also very important. Therefore, medical facilities and units often provide much needed knowledge and skills to patients and respective caregivers through the form of psychoeducational seminars/groups.

Psychoeduction with Family Therapy When children become sick, parents often increase the degree of care, the amount of attention, and even the attempts to control their child's behavior. These actions may easily lead to and maintain undesirable family relationship patterns that can have negative impacts on health management as well as child development, hence the efficacy of a solely psychoeducational intervention method is limited. With these limitations in mind, we developed a group therapy modality that incorporated elements of family therapy into paediatric asthma psychoeducation programs. Through a randomized controlled trial, rigorous comparisons between this newly developed group therapy program and a control group was conducted. Results indicate that the intervention group was significantly successful in decreasing patients' airway inflammation, increasing patients' adjustment to asthma, as well as parents' efficacy in asthma management.

Centre on Behavioral Health
Faculty of Social Sciences
The University of Hong Kong

This project is a collaboration between the Centre on Behavioral Health at the University of Hong Kong, the Department of Paediatrics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Community Rehabilitation Network of the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation,. Sponsored by the Hong Kong Asthma Society.