Other Health Care Provider

When people get sick or develop a disability, they often ask their health care providers, “How did this happen?” The answer could be clear and obvious but many times it is more complicated.  A Story of Health multimedia eBook explores this question and delves into how our environments interact with our genes to influence health across the lifespan. We tell A Story of Health through the lives of fictional characters and their families - Brett, a young boy with asthma; Amelia, a teenager with developmental disabilities; and toddler Stephen, recently diagnosed with leukemia. Each fictional case features the latest scientific research about disease origin and helpful facts about disease prevention. “Although our characters are fictional, the risk factors they face are real,” says Mark Miller MD, MPH, co-author and director of the University of California, San Francisco, Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit.  “Our eBook brings stories of health to life through an interactive format that we believe will engage a wide range of audiences.”  

Our Childhood Asthma Initiative,
By the Numbers

Check out our CALM infographic, which details the successes and strategies the Foundation and our grantees developed to reduce the burden of childhood asthma in Missouri.

Low-income adults with uncontrolled asthma saw both their asthma control and quality of life improve with the help of an in-home, self-management asthma support program delivered by community health workers (CHWs), according to a report published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Asthma affects 24.6 million American, including 17.5 million adults. Control of asthma is inadequate despite the availability of effective methods to manage it. Home-based self-management support to improve asthma control among children is well established. However, the effectiveness of home visits for adults has not been well studied.

James Krieger, M.D., M.P.H., of Public Health-Seattle and King County, Washington, and co-authors report on the Home-Based Asthma Support and Education trial (HomeBASE). The study enrolled 366 participants with uncontrolled asthma: 189 to usual care and 177 to the intervention, which included CHWs who provided education, support and service coordination during home visits. The CHWs provided an average of 4.9 home visits during a one-year period.

The intervention group had greater increases in the average number of symptom-free days over two weeks (2.02 days per two weeks more) and quality of life as measured on a questionnaire increased an average of 0.50 points. However, average urgent health care use episodes in the past 12 months decreased similarly in both groups from an average of 3.46 to 1.99 episodes in the intervention group and from an average of 3.30 to 1.96 episodes in the usual care group.

“We anticipate that this intervention could be readily replicated by health organizations serving diverse, low-income clients, suggesting that it could reduce asthma-related health inequities. Intervention protocols can be implemented without specialized training or resources. The cost per participant was approximately $1,300 (2013 U.S. dollars), substantially less than one year’s supply of an inhaled corticosteroid,” the study concludes.