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About IDPH

Second Evaluation Plan

Benefits of Illinois Asthma Home Visiting

Asthma continues to represent a significant health problem throughout Illinois, requiring a comprehensive approach to improve community health, reduce disparities, and achieve increased rates of well-controlled asthma. For this reason, Illinois Department of Public Health's Asthma Program has continued to support asthma home visiting programs, which seek to improve health outcomes and quality of life (QoL) through their services. Asthma HV is a one-year program involving components such as asthma self-management education (AS-ME), asthma trigger assessments, and delivering products to mitigate these triggers. The Illinois Asthma Program Evaluation Team, and stakeholders have constructed a plan to better understand benefits of asthma HV programs.

What do we want to know?

  1. Among program completers and non-completers, what were the benefits of completing the program?
    • Has the program completion rate changed over the last 5 years?
    • Was there an increase in asthma self-management knowledge between the initial visit and last follow-up visit or contact?
    • Has the level of asthma control changed at follow-up compared to baseline visits? (i.e. ED rates, ED visits, etc.)
    • How has the quality of life of children with asthma and their families improved because of the HV program?
  2. Has exposure to tobacco changed over time in the HV participants’ households?

How do we get there?

Standardized data collection will take place over a minimum of two years from four asthma HV programs strategically located in high asthma burden areas of Illinois.

  • Provides individual-level evidence about participants’ asthma self-management knowledge, asthma control, missed work or school days, and tobacco use and/or exposure to secondhand smoke and appropriate behavior modifications to reduce exposure.
    • Secondary data on referrals to the Illinois Tobacco Quitline (ITQL) regarding tobacco cessation will also be accessed.

By showing a positive change over time in the above variables, the evaluation will demonstrate how participating in asthma HV services improves the lives of IL children and their families.

End Goal

Evaluation findings may be used as evidence to support program improvements and expansion to achieve healthy communities, and improve health equities and outcomes. Other goals are:

  • Document evidence-based practices, particularly the delivery of AS-ME
  • Increase transparency, accountability and applicability
  • Inform families and other community stakeholders of important benefits of HV in both health and QoL