Recorded presentation

Johnnie A. Lee, MD, MPH, FACP, Ronald Miller, Cinthia Goncalves, RN, Lynn Galgano, RN, and Barbara Yantorno. Department of Health and Social Services, City of Stamford Connecticut, 888 Washington Blvd., Stamford, CT 06904, 203 977 4399, rmiller@ci.stamford.ct.us

The City of Stamford Health & Social Services Department through a 3 year Healthy Homes Grant has been operating an in-home pediatric asthma environmental education initiative for 2 years. The goal of A Breath of Fresh Air program is to efficiently identify, assess and ameliorate housing based hazards associated with environmentally induced illness in children.

Asthmatic children are identified from a comprehensive school health database that contains 20,000 schoolchildren. Because of this database, the school nurses personally know virtually all of the 1546 asthmatic children in the Stamford school system. Voluntary home visits are scheduled for families in 6 urban, inner city census tracts that are characterized by high poverty, poor housing stock, large ethnic and racial minority populations, many non-English speaking immigrants and a high prevalence of housing code violations. Home visits are performed by a team consisting of a nurse educator and a housing code inspector. At the initial visit a standardized quantitative assessment is completed and an educational and environmental intervention is performed. Follow-up visits occur at 3, 6 and 12 months intervals and the assessments are repeated. The program uses local codes, ordinances and State statutes to enforce sanitary maintenance of housing units.

The unique aspect of A Breath of Fresh Air program is the unparalleled degree of accuracy with which the target population is identified and enrolled. We anticipate that we will enroll 360 children during the 3year grant period and have thus far enrolled 214 children.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• List environmental factors that can exacerbate asthmatic symptoms among school-age children.
• Articulate interventions that can improve asthmatic symptoms among school-age children.
• Develop programs using a multi-discipline approach(nursing, environmental health inspection, and families)to make positive changes in the health of children.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Asthma

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.

Recorded presentation