الفهرس 
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Abstract
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways, in which many cells and cellular elements play a role. The chronic inflammation causes an associated increase in airway hyper-responsiveness that leads to recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing particularly at night or in early morning. These episodes are usually associated with widespread but variable airflow obstruction that is often reversible either spontaneously or with treatment.
Morbidity and mortality resulting from childhood asthma continue to rise at alarming rates despite improved understanding of the basic pathophysiology of asthma and the availability of increasingly effective therapies. This raises the importance of health education program to mothers of asthmatic children to increase their knowledge and partnership aiming to improve quality of life of their children.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, 300 million people suffer from asthma and
255, 000 people died of asthma in 2005. Asthma deaths will increase by almost 20% in the next 10 years if urgent action is not taken (WHO, 2008).
Health education program may be of importance not only for the clinical improvement of the affected children but also for improvement of their quality of life.
The aim of the work was to evaluate the effectiveness of asthma educational program to illiterate mothers of asthmatic children on increasing understanding of the disease, management skills, and asthma control aiming to improve the quality of life of them and their children.
The present study included 85 asthmatic children with their mothers with age ranged from 1-5 years, they were chosen among 297 asthmatic patients admitted to the pediatric department in Abbassia chest hospital from 1st of May 2007 to end of April 2008 after fitting the inclusion and exclusion criteria.