Asthma Intervention

For a quarter of a million Georgia children, simply breathing can be a burden. These children suffer from asthma, which costs millions of dollars in emergency medical treatments and causes thousands of missed school days in the state each year.

Thanks in part to faculty researchers at Georgia Southern’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH) some of the most underserved children with asthma may soon be able to breathe a little easier.

Professors Lynn Woodhouse and Russ Toal are leading the effort to evaluate the effectiveness of asthma prevention programs supported by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation. Because many children with asthma live in poverty and may not have access to routine medical care, it is crucial to make sure programs designed to help prevent asthma are getting results.

“For a number of years, the trends have been going in the wrong direction,” said Woodhouse. “The number of children with asthma, the number of emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and missed school days are all increasing. The Healthcare Georgia Foundation saw the need to tackle this growing problem and funded several programs that take different approaches to preventing asthma. Our role is to help the programs implement the innovations and program monitoring that will allow an accurate evaluation of their effectiveness.”

“We’re helping the groups that are running the programs to set up data collection systems and target the kids most at risk,” Toal said. We’re also identifying ways to improve the programs’ communication with schools and physicians.”

Asthma is the number one cause of missed school days, and Toal said kids with uncontrolled asthma have much higher absenteeism rates than their classmates. That’s one reason the researchers say it is so important to focus on keeping the condition in check.

Woodhouse added, “For kids who are maybe burdened by poverty, to miss many days of school because of asthma is almost impossible to overcome. That’s one reason almost all asthma projects are attempting to move children away from emergency visits to manageable, preventive primary care services.”

Woodhouse and Toal said some of the programs center on educating families and schools on how to prevent an asthma attack; something as simple as making sure a child is not around cigarette smoke or takes a nap on a cot instead of a rug at day care, can make a difference.

Gary Nelson, president of the Healthcare Georgia Foundation, said JPHCOPH’s mission of improving the healthcare of those in rural and underserved communities mirrors the mission of the asthma intervention programs.

“We’re delighted to be working with the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health,” said Nelson. “They possess the right combination of leadership experience and sensitivities to these communities. This is truly a partnership.”

The Georgia Healthcare Foundation recently awarded the JPHCOPH a renewal grant to continue the evaluation efforts for another year. “The Healthcare Georgia Foundation was really very visionary in trying to get out in front of this problem and to have a really involved evaluation process,” said Woodhouse. We’re very excited to be working with the Foundation as it continues this very important project.”