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Studies indicate that when those three evidence-based public health interventions are packaged and provided to children, they have the potential to yield a positive return on investment. Health Investments that Pay Off: Strategies for Addressing Asthma in Children examines the interventions, which have been found to reduce emergency department visits and hospitalizations, improve asthma control, decrease the frequency of symptoms, decrease work and school absenteeism and improve quality of life.

“Asthma cannot presently be prevented or cured, but people who have asthma can live a symptom-free, fully active life with proper treatment and services, beginning at an early age,” said NGA Executive Director Dan Crippen. “To improve health outcomes among children and reduce medical expenses, governors can incorporate interventions into their overall agenda for state health care transformation.”

Governors can take the following actions to implement and finance asthma-based interventions:

·Use a broad range of qualified providers to support effective and efficient delivery of asthma services;

·Encourage collaboration and resource sharing across public and private programs and sectors;

·Use health insurers to improve clinical management and payment for services; and

·Build efficiency and sustainability for the interventions through evaluations.

 To learn more about the NGA Center for Best Practices Health Division, please visit www.nga.org/cms/center/health 

ABSTRACT:

Poor quality housing is an ongoing environmental injustice placing a significant burden on low-income and minority families. The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) in Baltimore, MD, grew out of the historical healthy homes work of the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, an organization dedicated to using housing as a platform for health to ensure environmental and socialjustice for families and children in low-income communities. GHHI’s Healthy Homes Demonstration Project utilized the standards and practices created by GHHI: A Holistic Housing Assessment coupled with environmental health education and combined as an integrated environmental health and energy housing intervention for children with asthma, ages 2–14. The project braids resources from healthy homes, lead hazard reduction, weatherization, and energy efficiency projects to form a single multi-component, multi-factorial intervention. Findings from the health surveys at intake and six months after the intervention provide evidence of the impact on the reduction of asthma symptomatic episodes, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations, while showingimprovementsin school attendance and parents’ work attendance. Findings will provide evidence that improved health outcomes and more stable and productive homes in primarily African American, low-income neighborhoods are related to the mitigation of asthma triggers and home-based environmental health hazards. Upstream integrated housing interventions are an effective means to improve health, economic, and social outcomes for children diagnosed with asthma.