The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #66399

Ellen D. S. Lopez, PhD¹, Edith A. Parker, DrPH², Barbara A. Israel, DrPH³, Wilma Brakefield-Caldwell, BS⁴, Jean Patton², Ursula Ford-Pitts², and Adriana Zuniga². (1) Community Health Scholars Program, The University of Michigan, School of Public Health, 109 Observatory, SPH II, Room M3531, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, 734-615-7764, edslopez@umich.edu, (2) Department of Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, (3) School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, Room M5031 SPH II, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, (4) Steering Committee Member, CAAA Steering Committee Member, 19373 Pennington, Detroit, MI 48211

There are increasing rates of childhood asthma, especially in urban areas, and a growing number of interventions aimed at addressing problems associated with childhood asthma. However, there is a lack of understanding of caregivers’ perceptions of the broader social, structural, and environmental forces that may be behind this increase in asthma rates, as well as caregivers’ assessments of the effectiveness of interventions. This presentation will focus on the results of in-depth qualitative interviews with caregivers currently involved in Community Action Against Asthma (CAAA). CAAA is a community-academic partnership that uses a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to identify and reduce children’s exposure to environmental asthma triggers in east and southwest communities in Detroit, Michigan. A two year component of CAAA is a household intervention in which community outreach workers visited over 300 households multiple times to work with caregivers of a child with asthma in designing individualized action plans for reducing the child’s exposure to indoor environmental asthma triggers, and to provide education, social support and materials (e.g., vacuums, cleaning supplies) to achieve their action plans. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with up to 20 caregivers to provide them the opportunity to give their perspectives regarding CAAA’s impact on their child and family as well as their insights as to how broader social, structural, and environmental issues affect their child’s asthma and impact their ability to manage it. In addition to presenting findings from these interviews, implications for asthma control and management will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to:
• Recognize the importance of gaining caregiver’s perceptions about the issues that affect children’s asthma
• Describe CAAA’s household intervention and its work with caregivers of children with asthma.
• Understand some of the broader social, structural and environmental forces that may affect asthma in urban communities.

Keywords: Asthma, Community Participation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.