Changes in adolescents' asthma knowledge, social support-seeking behaviors, and asthma self-management following an online peer support program.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents with asthma often experience inadequate disease knowledge, limited social support, and poor self-management, which may adversely affect asthma control and quality of life. Online peer support programs offer a promising approach to complement conventional asthma education by addressing both educational and psychosocial needs. AIM: To examine changes in adolescents' asthma knowledge, social support-seeking behaviors, and asthma self-management following participation in an online peer support program. METHODS: A one-group quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was conducted among 50 adolescents (12-16 years) with physician-diagnosed asthma attending two outpatient pulmonary clinics in Egypt. Participants completed validated questionnaires assessing asthma knowledge, social support-seeking behaviors, and asthma self-management before and after an 8-week nurse-supervised online peer support program delivered through WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams. RESULTS: Significant improvements were observed following the intervention. Mean asthma knowledge scores increased from 25.98 ± 4.19 to 39.40 ± 1.34 (p < .001), social support-seeking behavior scores increased from 13.90 ± 1.72 to 29.34 ± 1.69 (p < .001), and asthma self-management scores increased from 5.10 ± 2.19 to 15.10 ± 0.99 (p < .001). Significant positive correlations emerged between asthma knowledge and social support-seeking behaviors (r = 0.465, p < .001), asthma knowledge and self-management (r = 0.311, p = .02), and social support-seeking behaviors and self-management (r = 0.582, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Participation in the online peer support program was associated with significant improvements in asthma knowledge, social support-seeking behaviors, and asthma self-management.