Achieving and maintaining asthma control in an urban pediatric disease management program: the Breathmobile Program.

Background: National guidelines suggest that, with appropriate care, most patients can control their asthma. The probabilities of children achieving and maintaining control with ongoing care are unknown.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the degree to which children in a lower socioeconomic urban setting achieve and maintain control of asthma with regular participation in a disease management program that provides guideline-based care.

Validation of a single survey that can be used for case identification and assessment of asthma control: the Breathmobile Program.

Background: Underdiagnosis of asthma and underrecognition of disease severity in lower socioeconomic populations continue to be significant health care concerns despite national efforts to better educate health care providers.

Objective: To validate a 1-page survey as a point-in-time tool identifying uncontrolled vs controlled asthma and moderate-to-severe disease activity in an urban, lower-socioeconomic pediatric population.

Methods: A previously validated survey (the Breathmobile Case Identification Survey) was evaluated as a point-in-time tool for identifying children with poorly controlled disease.

The Breathmobile Program: structure, implementation, and evolution of a large-scale, urban, pediatric asthma disease management program.

Despite more than a decade of education and research-oriented intervention programs, inner city children with asthma continue to engage in episodic "rescue" patterns of healthcare and experience a disproportionate level of morbidity. The aim of this study was to establish and evaluate a sustainable community-wide pediatric asthma disease management program designed to shift inner city children in Los Angeles from acute episodic care to regular preventive care in accordance with national standards. In 1995 the Southern California Chapter of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LAC DHS), and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) established an agreement to initiate and sustain the Breathmobile Program.

A school-based case identification process for identifying inner city children with asthma: the Breathmobile program.

Background: Striking increases in the prevalence and morbidity of asthma among inner city children have been documented.

Objective: To establish and evaluate a large-scale, school-based case-detection process designed to efficiently and reliably identify inner city children with asthma.

Methods: A bilingual, seven-question, self-administered, parental asthma screening survey was developed.

Cockroach counts and house dust allergen concentrations after professional cockroach control and cleaning.

Background: It is known that cockroach allergen exposure is both frequent in inner-city homes and associated with asthma severity in children living in those homes. However, there have been few studies of interventions to reduce exposures in this setting.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of short-term professional cockroach control and intensive cleaning on allergen concentrations.