The Economic Burden of Asthma in the United States, 2008-2013.

Rationale: Asthma is a chronic disease that affects quality of life, productivity at work and school, and healthcare use; and it can result in death. Measuring the current economic burden of asthma provides important information on the impact of asthma on society. This information can be used to make informed decisions about allocation of limited public health resources.

Through a Culturally Competent Lens: Why the Program Evaluation Standards Matter.

Program evaluation is an important tool for all health professionals as it enables us to learn what works, what does not, and how we can make improvements. In this article, we describe how both program staff and evaluators can use the program evaluation standards to ensure their work is culturally competent and stakeholder driven. When public health programs and their evaluations are responsive to culture and context, and they include meaningful-not token-stakeholder engagement, we produce better evaluations that are more likely to yield useful findings and lead to more effective programs.