Home asthma triggers: barriers to asthma control in Chicago Puerto Rican children. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Home asthma triggers: barriers to asthma control in Chicago Puerto Rican children.
J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2013 May ;24(2):813-27. PMID: 23728047
Rush University Medical Center (RUMC), Department of Preventive Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA. [email protected]
We sought objectively to measure, summarize, and contextualize the asthma triggers found in the homes of urban high-risk Puerto Rican children and adolescents with asthma in Chicago. Data were from the baseline home assessments of Project CURA. Research assistants interviewed caregivers, conducted a home visual inspection, and collected saliva samples for cotinine analysis. A trigger behavior summary score was created. The housing inspected was old with multiple units and obvious structural deficiencies. Many allergic and irritant triggers were observed. Having a controller medicine or private insurance was associated with lower trigger behavior summary scores; caregiver depression, caregiver perceived stress, and child negative life events were associated with high trigger scores. The final multivariate model retained had a controller medicine, private insurance, and caregiver perceived stress. The data from this high-risk cohort identified modifiable areas where environmental interventions could reduce morbidity in Puerto Rican children and adolescents.