Addressing Asthma in High-Risk Communities

24-7. Increase the proportion of persons with asthma who receive appropriate asthma care according to the NAEPP Guidelines.



24-6. Increase the proportion of persons with asthma who receive formal patient education, including information about community and self-help resources, as an essential part of the management of their condition.



24-3. Reduce hospital emergency department visits for asthma.



24-2. Reduce hospitalizations for asthma.

Promote Asthma Awareness

Increase the percentage of children and adults who are aware of the signs and symptoms of undiagnosed asthma and who seek care if they experience them.

Implement Community Asthma Programs and Policies

Increase the percentage of schools, churches, childcare centers, and other organizations that implement asthma-friendly programs and policies.

Diagnose and Manage Asthma

Increase the percentage of patients with asthma who receive appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

Prevent Recurrent Exacerbations of Asthma

Reduce the percentage of patients with asthma who require repeated emergency and/or urgent care visits or hospitalizations due to uncontrolled asthma.

1. Provide administrative oversight to the seven funded coalition projects for the next 3 years.

2. Establish partnerships among the seven projects with the NHLBI/Prospect; enhance communication with each other and with the broader community of asthma coalitions through the NAEPP Asthma Coalition Contract Awardee Extranet and NAEPP Asthma Coalition Exchange.

3. Develop intervention strategies to serve as models for community-based asthma prevention and management that focus on patient-centered education, health care and office systems changes; models that can be sustained, and tailored to a variety of community-based settings. Provide technical assistance, training, and other resources needed to facilitate development of effective models.

4. Demonstrate progress toward the Healthy People 2010 Objectives through the collective efforts of the seven projects.

5. Share findings and information from the seven projects with the broader community of asthma coalitions.

Available data indicate that current knowledge of appropriate asthma therapy is not being applied as widely as expected. In addition, a gap exists between how physicians say they practice and what patients say they receive. These problems show the need for enhanced efforts to more fully apply existing knowledge based on the "Expert Panel Report 2: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma," particularly in communities that are disproportionately affected by asthma. Applying existing knowledge includes using culturally appropriate methodologies and new technologies to disseminate information, and goes beyond information dissemination to encompass community organization and empowerment strategies that will institutionalize changes for the long term.

NHLBI has funded seven local asthma coalitions to implement interventions to improve asthma control within high-risk communities. These projects involve a number of strategic partnerships with a broad base of community groups, and use new information technologies to facilitate effective transfer of the current science base to practitioners. The purpose of this project is to work directly with the seven coalition projects to develop community-based models that can be used to help eliminate disparity in asthma morbidity in other sites and thereby help meet the Healthy People 2010 objectives for asthma.