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Grants for Inner City Asthma Intervention Awarded by CDC

2/16/2001:   As child welfare workers know, asthma is a major public health problem that has increased over the past several decades. This serious, even life-threatening condition affects the quality of life of both the people with asthma and their families’ ability to fully participate in life activities. For instance, parents lose time at work to care for children who are ill, and children with asthma often miss significant numbers of school days.

On February 5, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control awarded $2.9 million in funds to 23 sites to improve the health of inner city children who have asthma. In the new program, an asthma counselor who is also a professional social worker will work closely with the children and the affected families for an extended period of time. Over time, the counselor will assist families with problems related to the physical and emotional aspects of asthma, environmental factors that trigger asthma, adherence training, and follow-up of necessary behavioral changes. Because children in low-income and minority families experience more frequent severe asthma episodes that lead to hospitalization or death, the program is directed toward organizations that treat these populations.

This intervention by community-based health organizations is based on the National Cooperative Inner City Asthma Study, the largest asthma study of children ever completed. That preliminary study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

For more information, including a list of organizations receiving grants for this project, see http://www.niaid.nih.gov/newsroom/asthmagrants.htm

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