Text2Breathe: Text-Message Intervention for Parent Communication and Pediatric Asthma.

OBJECTIVE: Mobile health technology offers promise for reducing disparities in pediatric asthma care and outcomes by helping parents more effectively communicate with their children's primary care providers and manage their children's asthma. This study tested the impact of a text messaging program on emergency department utilization and asthma morbidity. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial enrolled 221 parents of Medicaid-insured children visiting the emergency departments of 2 urban children's hospitals in the Pacific Northwest for an asthma-related concern between September 2015 and February 2019. Standardized surveys were administered to parents at baseline and 12 months later to assess the primary outcomes of emergency department utilization and morbidity as well as primary care utilization, parent communication self-efficacy, and asthma self-management knowledge. The intervention group received brief in-person education on partnering with primary care providers, followed by 3 months of educational text messages. RESULTS: Participants were mostly female, English speakers, of minority race and ethnicity, and living below 200% of the federal poverty level. Negative binomial and linear regressions indicated no significant group differences in annual number of emergency department visits, morbidity, parent communication self-efficacy, or asthma self-management knowledge at 12 months' follow-up, adjusting for baseline covariates. Average annual rate of primary care visits for asthma was 35% higher in the intervention group compared to control group at follow-up (95% confidence interval 1.03-1.76, P = .03). CONCLUSIONS: This parent-focused text message intervention did not impact emergency department utilization or asthma morbidity; however, results suggest its potential for enhancing use of primary care for management of pediatric chronic conditions.

Sociodemographic Differences in Asthma Self-Management Knowledge of Parents Seeking Asthma Care for their Children in Pediatric Emergency Departments.

To effectively support asthma self-management among children most at risk for poor outcomes, it is important to examine potential disparities in parents' asthma-related knowledge. This study draws on baseline data collected from a randomized controlled trial to analyze how knowledge of asthma self-management varies by sociodemographic characteristics in a racially and economically diverse sample of Medicaid-insured children seeking emergency asthma care (N=221). Multivariable linear regression revealed that parent race/ethnicity, preferred language, and education were independently associated with scores on the Asthma Self Management Knowledge Questionnaire, and there was a significant interaction between parent race/ethnicity and education. In analyses stratified by parent education level, Latinx race/ethnicity was associated with lower-self-management knowledge among parents with higher education level, but not among those with a lower level of education. Our findings call for further research to understand and address the unique barriers to improving asthma self-management knowledge among Latinx parents and parents with limited English proficiency.

Mass and double-beta-decay Q value of 136Xe.

The atomic mass of 136Xe has been measured by comparing cyclotron frequencies of single ions in a Penning trap. The result, with 1 standard deviation uncertainty, is M(136Xe)=135.907 214 484 (11) u. Combined with previous results for the mass of 136Ba [Audi, Wapstra, and Thibault, Nucl. Phys. A 729, 337 (2003)10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.003], this gives a Q value (M[136Xe]-M[136Ba])c(2)=2457.83(37) keV, sufficiently precise for ongoing searches for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 136Xe.