The proposed demonstration and education research project is designed to develop and evaluate a health education program to be used by cystic fibrosis centers to assist CF patients and their families develop skills for the self-management of CF and to cope effectively with the psychosocial impact of CF. The CF Center at Baylor College of Medicine will be used to develop and conduct formative evaluation of the CF health education program. The CF Center at Emory University will serve as the site for a randomized clinical trial of the health education program to determine its impact on educational and behavioral variables and the effectveness of the program to influence health status and quality of life outcomes. The outcome measures will include a general clinical assessment, pulmonary function, nutritional status, social development, adaptive functioning and family psychosocial functioning. The health education program will be conducted for two years and data will be collected before and after the intervention for the treatment and control groups. Evaluation results will be used to revise and prepare the health education program for dissemination and use by other CF centers.
