Reducing Asthma Morbidity In High Risk Minority Preschool Children

Low-income, minority children are disproportionately affected by asthma and can experience higher rates of asthma attacks, lower lung function, decreased physical activity, increases in school absenteeism, and higher rates of death. The National Center for Children in Poverty suggests that effective interventions to improve asthma and reduce harm for high risk groups (like low-income minority children) must begin in early childhood. Previous research has shown that asthma education programs can be effective to improve overall asthma management in preschool children, but there has been limited sustainability of these programs in medical, educational, and social environments that serve young high risk children. One of the core missions of federally-funded Head Start programs is to provide preventive health services and screening to their low-income preschool students and would be an ideal setting in the community to disseminate an early asthma education program. The purpose of this study is to draw on our health and research partnership with Baltimore City Head Start programs to test the effectiveness of a home-based asthma education intervention combined with a Head Start level asthma education program compared to a Head Start level asthma education program alone.