SINAI Urban Health Institute

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Research / Evaluation


Project:Controlling Pediatric Asthma through Collaboration and Education

Introduction:
Asthma affects about 9 million children in the U.S. (12% of children <18 years), with some of the highest rates having been documented among African American and Puerto Rican children living in the inner city. In fact, in some inner-city communities, the prevalence of pediatric asthma approaches and even exceeds one in four. Many inner-city children utilize the emergency department (ED) as their primary source of asthma care. As the focus in the ED is on the treatment of acute symptoms, many children who are frequent users of the ED are not properly medicated or educated on asthma self-management.
Project plan:
Evidence from Sinai’s previous pediatric asthma initiatives (PAI-1 & PAI-2) led the Illinois Department of Public Health to include the Lay Health Educator (LHE) model as a part of a larger state-wide asthma initiative, Controlling Pediatric Asthma Through Collaboration and Education (CPATCE).
 
The overall goal of this initiative is to improve asthma management among high risk children in Illinois and thereby reduce asthma-related healthcare expenditure, asthma morbidity and mortality. Sinai serves as the training, evaluation and coordinating site for the project.
 
Sinai’s specific activities:
  • Expand PAI-2 model locally to address additional communities/target populations in Chicago
  • Sinai’s Pediatric Asthma Program serves as a model program and resource to newly established programs 
  •  Assist partner sites in recruiting and training LHEs. The Sinai Asthma Education Training Institute was developed to fill this need.
  • Provide sound evaluation of the initiative’s progress and success in meeting its goals

The program is currently funded through 6/30/2008

Partner Sites
Six target areas were chosen to partner with Sinai in implementing the LHE model in their own community. Each of these areas had asthma hospitalization rates in excess of the state average in  2003 (17.6 per 10,000 population) and also had an established asthma consortium.
 
Partnering Asthma Consortium
Bureau/ Putnam Asthma Team
Chicago Asthma Consortium http://www.chicagoasthma.org/   
Decatur Area Asthma Coalition
Northwestern Illinois Asthma Coalition
Rockford Asthma Consortium http://www.rockfordasthmaconsortium.org/
Project updates:
CPATCE is currently funded through December 2008. All participating sites recruited participants for their programs through June 30th, 2008. The next six months of the current intervention will be used for follow-up visits with active participants, continued data collection, and data analysis. A final report will be available in February 2009.  
 
One of the goals of CPATCE is to examine if the use of LHEs to improve asthma management and thereby morbidity and mortality, is effective in different communities in Illinois. Throughout the programs intervention phase, there have been several noteworthy lessons learned, challenges, and successes that show how this program can be effective in various communities. This study lends power to critically look at these unique communities, offering insight into the delivery of culturally appropriate disease management programs.
Resources:
Asthma Resources
Trigger Avoidance Tip Sheets (PDF Files)
Mold Allergy (Spanish)
Pollen Allergy (Spanish)
Rodent Allergy (Spanish)
 
Organizational Links
Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation           
Contact information:

For more information about this project, please contact Helen Margellos-Anast at suhi@sinai.org

Personnel: