# AIM2ACT: A Mobile Health Tool to Facilitate Asthma Self-Management during Early Adolescence

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2020 · $762,676

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Asthma is the most prevalent childhood chronic illness, affecting 9.7% of adolescents. National guidelines
emphasize the importance of adherence to self-management behaviors for controlling asthma and preventing
impaired health and quality of life. Adolescents have suboptimal adherence to asthma self-management
behaviors, placing them at risk for morbidity and reduced quality of life. Asthma self-management difficulties
emerge in early adolescence as youth begin to transition towards taking more control of their treatment
regimen, making it a critical intervention period. The presence of helpful caregiver support is pivotal in
determining whether early adolescents ultimately develop and master asthma self-management behaviors. Our
interdisciplinary team received NIH funding (PI: Fedele; R21 HD083830) to respond to the critical need for the
development of an intervention to facilitate helpful caregiver support in early adolescents (12-15 year-olds) with
poorly controlled asthma. AIM2ACT is a dyadic smartphone intervention, informed by the Pediatric Self-
Management Model that is specifically tailored to increase helpful caregiver support and adolescent asthma
self-efficacy, thereby improving asthma control. AIM2ACT contains three components: 1) ecological
momentary assessment to identify personalized strengths and weaknesses in asthma self-management
behaviors; 2) collaborative identification and tracking of goals that help early adolescents to become
increasingly independent in managing their asthma; and 3) a suite of engaging skills training videos to help
dyads understand how to use AIM2ACT and work together to set asthma self-management goals, develop and
achieve goals, and engage in problem-solving communication. Results of our pilot trial revealed high feasibility
and acceptability of our protocol and preliminary efficacy for AIM2ACT in improving asthma control. The
proposed study will test the efficacy of AIM2ACT and long-term maintenance of treatment effects in a fully-
powered randomized controlled trial with 160 early adolescents with poorly controlled persistent asthma, ages
12-15 years, and a caregiver. Families will be randomly assigned to receive AIM2ACT (n=80) or a mHealth
attention control condition (n=80) that accounts for staff attention and novelty of a technology-based
intervention for 6 months. Dyads in the control condition will not receive personalized asthma management
feedback, will not be guided through collaborative identification and tracking of asthma self-management goals,
and will not have access to skills training videos. Instead, they will receive static educational information on
their smartphones about behavioral management techniques they can use to target improving asthma self-
management. The control condition is designed to optimize recruitment and sustain interest while concurrently
having a minimal impact on asthma management. Assessments will occur at baseline, post-intervention, and
3-, 6-...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10028459
- **Project number:** 1R01HL153119-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID A FEDELE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $762,676
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-10 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10028459

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10028459, AIM2ACT: A Mobile Health Tool to Facilitate Asthma Self-Management during Early Adolescence (1R01HL153119-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10028459. Licensed CC0.

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