Publications by authors named "Sylvia Brandt"

Many aspects of asthma-in particular the relationship between beliefs, averting behaviors, and symptoms-are not directly observable from market data. An approach that combines observable market data with nonmarket valuation to gather data on unobservable aspects of the illness can improve efforts to quantify the burden of asthma if it accounts for the endogeneity in the system. Such approaches are used in the valuation of recreation but have not been widely used to value the burden of a chronic illness.

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Children with medical complexity comprise a growing population that stresses existing models of pediatric care. This report will describe a care support project that delivered shared plans of care to providers and families of children with medical complexity. This program was built around carefully constructed care support teams where each member had clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

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Community-level approaches for pediatric asthma management rely on locally collected information derived primarily from two sources: claims records and school-based surveys. We combined claims and school-based surveillance data, and examined the asthma-related risk patterns among adolescent students. Symptom data collected from school-based asthma surveys conducted in Oakland, CA were used for case identification and determination of severity levels for students (high and low).

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Background: Emerging evidence indicates that the near-roadway air pollution (NRAP) mixture contributes to CHD, yet few studies have evaluated the associated costs.

Objective: We integrated an assessment of NRAP-attributable CHD in Southern California with new methods to value the associated mortality and hospitalizations.

Methods: Based on population-weighted residential exposure to NRAP (traffic density, proximity to a major roadway and elemental carbon), we estimated the inflation-adjusted value of NRAP-attributable mortality and costs of hospitalizations that occurred in 2008.

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Background: Several studies have estimated the burden of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality from ambient regional particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5).

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Background: Emerging evidence suggests that near-roadway air pollution (NRP) exposure causes childhood asthma. The associated costs are not well documented.

Objective: We estimated the cost of childhood asthma attributable to residential NRP exposure and regional ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in Los Angeles County.

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National guidelines on the effective management of pediatric asthma have been promoted for over 20 years, yet asthma-related morbidity among low-income children remains disproportionately high. To date, household and clinical interventions designed to remediate these differences have been informed largely by a health behavior framework. However, these programs have not resulted in consistent sustained improvements in targeted populations.

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Objectives: We investigated the role of risk tolerance, time preference, and asthma-specific attitudes in adherence to asthma control medications.

Methods: Students with persistent asthma completed an online survey on asthma beliefs, risk tolerance, and time preference (n = 47). The time preference questions measure the degree to which the individual discounts future outcomes and essentially prefers immediate gratification to delayed gratification.

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Objectives: We use a contingent valuation (CV) study of childhood asthma to discuss a central issue in designing CV studies of chronic illness-the need for a detailed, realistic scenario that minimizes confounding factors-and show how to address this issue. We apply our methodology to estimate households' willingness to pay (WTP) for reductions in asthma morbidity.

Methods: By using a combination of focus groups, revealed preference surveys, and epidemiological surveys, we gathered information on health status, attitudes, and beliefs regarding asthma, risk-averting behaviors, perceptions of these behaviors, and household socioeconomic characteristics.

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Background: The emerging consensus that exposure to near-roadway traffic-related pollution causes asthma has implications for compact urban development policies designed to reduce driving and greenhouse gases.

Objectives: We estimated the current burden of childhood asthma-related disease attributable to near-roadway and regional air pollution in Los Angeles County (LAC) and the potential health impact of regional pollution reduction associated with changes in population along major traffic corridors.

Methods: The burden of asthma attributable to the dual effects of near-roadway and regional air pollution was estimated, using nitrogen dioxide and ozone as markers of urban combustion-related and secondary oxidant pollution, respectively.

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Recent research suggests the burden of childhood asthma that is attributable to air pollution has been underestimated in traditional risk assessments, and there are no estimates of these associated costs. We aimed to estimate the yearly childhood asthma-related costs attributable to air pollution for Riverside and Long Beach, CA, USA, including: 1) the indirect and direct costs of healthcare utilisation due to asthma exacerbations linked with traffic-related pollution (TRP); and 2) the costs of health care for asthma cases attributable to local TRP exposure. We calculated costs using estimates from peer-reviewed literature and the authors' analysis of surveys (Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, California Health Interview Survey, National Household Travel Survey, and Health Care Utilization Project).

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Objective: To estimate the treatment effect of participation in an asthma intervention that was part of the National Asthma Control Program.

Study Design: Cross-sectional; difference in outcomes between participants and comparable nonparticipants matched by using propensity scores.

Methods: Data on children who participated in asthma case management (n = 270) and eligible children who did not participate in case management (n = 2742) were extracted from a Medicaid claims database.

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Background: The Inner-City Asthma Intervention was a national, multicenter implementation of an evidence-based intervention to reduce asthma morbidity in inner-city children that was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Funding was initially planned for 4 years beginning in April 2001, but because of budgetary changes funding ceased in September 2004, 6 months before the original plan. Some sites were able to sustain their asthma program when the funding ended and others were not.

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Objectives: We examined racial disparities in asthma morbidity in Massachusetts.

Methods: We used Massachusetts case-mix data from 1994 to 2002 to screen and track individual asthma morbidity and hospitalizations, which resulted in a sample of 10145 patients who were first hospitalized for asthma between 1997 and 2000. We followed these patients for 2 years after their first hospitalization.

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