Lydia Odenat¹, Adora Nwosu¹, Marianne Celano, PhD², and Lawanda Cummings³. (1) School of Medicine & Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 49 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, Atlanta, GA 30303, 404-778-1535, lodenat@emory.edu, (2) School of Medicine/Department of Child Psychiatry, Emory University, 49 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, Atlanta, GA 30303, (3) Georgia State University's Department of Psychology, Emory University, 49 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, Atlanta, GA 30303

Caregiver Depression and Medication Adherence among Low-income Children with Asthma

The primary aim of this study is to examine the relationships among caregiver depressive symptoms, caregiver knowledge of asthma, and self-reported and electronically monitored adherence to Singulair® (Montelukast) for a sample of 6 to 11 year old low-income children with persistent asthma. Participants were recruited from a pediatric clinic or an emergency center at an urban hospital. Consenting families were visited in their homes by a nurse who assessed asthma knowledge and placed the child’s Singulair® pills in a bottle with an electronic monitoring device (MEMS IV TrackCapTM CR) embedded in the cap. Two weeks later, families participated in an office visit where caregivers were administered measures of depressive symptoms and asked about medication adherence. The average age of the children was 8.49 years, 78% were male, and 100% were African American. Caregivers were predominantly females (96%), mothers to the index child (88%), not married (69%), and 74% reported a household income lower than $18,000. Electronically monitored mean daily adherence (MDA) to Singulair® over 14 days ranged from 7% to 100%, with a mean of 76%. Singulair® MDA was not significantly correlated to caregiver asthma knowledge, but was negatively correlated with caregiver depressive symptoms (r = -.27, N = 49, p = .06). These correlational analyses will be repeated with a full data set (N = 60 to 65), and we will examine the relationship between self-reported and electronically monitored adherence. Implications for public health education and program development in pediatric asthma will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the poster presentation session, participants will be able to

• Identify the reciprocal relationships that exist between caregiver depression, asthma knowledge, social support, family cohesion, and child’s asthma treatment adherence to Singulair.
• Identify a key clinical assessment tool used to measure the presence of depression in adolescents and adults (Beck Depression Inventory II).
• Articulate psychosocial factors that either promote or interfere with asthma treatment adherence.
• Describe basic methods for objectively measuring adherence to pills.

Keywords: Asthma, Depression

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.