'Puff City' may help teens with asthma

AUGUSTA, Ga., March 9 (UPI) -- A computer asthma program tailored to teens could help those in rural areas manage their disease and avoid fatal complications, U.S. researchers said.

Dr. Dennis Ownby of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta said black males have a death rate from asthma six times greater than their white counterparts.

"The prevalence is probably the same in rural areas," Ownby said in a statement.

Ownby and colleagues noted rural teens face greater challenges -- including greater difficulties getting to doctors and other health providers and more exposures to tobacco from smoking or secondhand smoke.

The researchers are offering 300 rural high-school students computers at school for the next three years with either traditional asthma education or Puff City -- a culturally tailored intervention Web-based program focusing on reducing exposure to tobacco, adhering to medication and attack readiness that features a "hip" DJ Puffman with messages tailored to each student's asthma condition.

Puff City was developed and tested by Christine Joseph, an epidemiologist at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital. Offering Puff City in Detroit was linked to 50 percent fewer emergency department visits, 50 percent fewer hospitalizations and 60 percent fewer school absences.