The Impact of Relaxation and Hypnosis on Medical Resources Utilization in Pediatric Asthma

Abstract

Asthma is one of the most common chronic pediatric illnesses. Estimates about its prevalence among children and adolescents under the age of 18 range up to 7%/Compared to their peers, children with asthma missed an additional 10.1 million days of school, had 12.9 million more contacts with physicians, and were hospitalized 200,000,000 more times in 1988. The estimated economic impact of asthma in the United States exceeds $6.2 billion. Behavioral interventions have been shown to improve the management of pediatric asthma, as well as reduce the utilization of medical resources. The proposed study will determine if combining hypnosis and relaxation training interventions produces different medical resource utilization by pediatric asthma patients than the use of relaxation training alone. Twenty five pediatric asthma patients will be trained in relaxation techniques and self-hypnosis, twenty five will be trained in relaxation techniques alone and an additional twenty five patients will be receive no behavioral interventions. Medical resource utilization (clinic visits, emergency room visits, and hospitalization for asthma related events) will be examined in pre- and post-intervention for each group. Utilization will be compared between groups at 6 and 12 months following intervention. It is hypothesized that both intervention groups will demonstrate lower utilization post- intervention, and that the hypnosis grp will demonstrate that least utilization of medical resources.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA421460

Entities

People

  • Nancy H. Barber

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Duty
  • Age Groups
  • Behavioral Medicine
  • Biomedical Research
  • Economic Impact
  • Education
  • Electronic Mail
  • Health Services
  • Hospitalizations
  • Information Operations
  • Intervention
  • Medical Personnel
  • Physicians
  • Psychotherapy
  • Standards
  • Training
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

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