Factors Associated with Asthma Self-Management in African American Adolescents 12

•We contributed to the limited studies of African American adolescents with asthma.•We examined factors related to asthma self-management.•Completion of an asthma education program was associated with better asthma self-management.•Perceiving more asthma consequences was associated with better asthma self-management.•Having a greater understanding of asthma was associated with better asthma self-management.

Few studies have focused on asthma self-management in African American adolescents, a group with high rates of the disease. This study examined factors associated with asthma self-management in 133 African Americans aged 14–16 years including gender, asthma impairment, prior asthma education, cognitive and emotional illness representations. Twenty-five percent of the variance in asthma self-management was explained by having attended an asthma education program, perceiving more asthma consequences (illness consequences), and reporting greater understanding of asthma as an illness (illness coherence). Findings suggest that these variables may be important targets of interventions to improve asthma self-management in African American middle adolescents.