Getting in Touch

Primary Care Research Network
East Midlands & South Yorkshire
Co-ordinating Centre
4th Floor, St John's House
30 East Street
Leicester LE1 6NB

E. judith.martin@emsy.nhs.uk
T. 0116 295 4080
F. 0116 295 4177

Studies A-Z > M > Mia

The Management and Interventions for Asthma (MIA) study has been funded by NIHR HSR  to develop methods for and evaluate the success of collaborative working in the production of health interventions for childhood illnesses. Underpinning the study is the principle that there are multiple levels of influence on child health and that all must be considered if an effective partnership and thus effective interventions are to be created. A partnership between children, their families, their communities and professionals involved in delivering children’s services are at the very heart of MIA. We wish to understand how perceptions and beliefs about health and illness can have a role in determining priorities and types of interventions that would be acceptable and effective.  

Asthma is one of the commonest long-term childhood conditions in the UK and is therefore the chosen condition for this study.  The study will focus on the South Asian community, as South Asian children are more likely to be admitted to hospital for asthma than White children even though there’s no evidence that South Asian children have more severe asthma. It aims to improve the health and quality of life of South Asian children, reducing the current inequalities in asthma outcomes and reducing asthma-related hospital admissions. The MIA research team recognise the need to respect different cultures, religions and languages in the South Asian Community and will use different methods to reach the numerous communities and translators to ensure that individuals are not excluded due to the language requirements.

To develop the intervention programme, the MIA study will use:

1.       Information from existing research

2.       Focus groups and interviews with South Asian community members

3.       Interviews with South Asian children, families and the professionals involved in their care

4.       Workshops for all study members to share ideas and suggestions for interventions and comment on potential issues and advantages.

The lessons learnt from MIA will be used to produce an exemplar for how to achieve collaborative intervention design that could then be applied to other conditions and applied across the UK.

Together, this data will be used to develop an intervention programme to develop an intervention programme.

MIA is running in Leicester City only.