Grant winners study health care usage, patient perspectives in asthma
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- The 2024 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology scientific meeting will feature presentations from six recipients of grants from the Allergists’ Foundation.
- Four winners have asthma-related projects.
BOSTON — Work from four of the six winners of a grant from the Allergists’ Foundation as part of the Community Grant Program focus on asthma, according to an American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology press release.
The release said that each of these projects, all of which will be presented at the College’s annual scientific meeting, received the grant because they “address challenges faced by communities served by practicing allergists.”
Main topics of the four studies include urgent and non-urgent health care usage in an urban, ethnically diverse pediatric population with asthma plus atopic dermatitis; patient and parent perspectives of mild asthma; a rural school engagement strategy for stock inhalers; and continuous monitoring of indoor air quality.
In the first abstract outlined above, Marcella Aquino, MD, asthma/immunologist at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, associate professor of pediatrics at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and program director of the allergy and immunology fellowship at Brown/Rhode Island Hospital/Hasbro Children’s Hospital, reported a link between greater eczema symptom severity and higher health care utilization in a cohort of 26 children (mean age, 9.8 years; 58% males; non-Latino white, n = 5; Black, n = 9; Hispanic, n = 3; multiracial, n = 9).
“We found that there was a strong overlap between asthma and eczema symptoms in participants, with non-Latino white participants demonstrating worse asthma control and more severe eczema symptoms,” Aquino told Healio. “Children with more severe asthma and eczema symptoms displayed higher urgent and non-urgent health care utilization.”
Notably, urgent health care utilization included ED visits, urgent care, hospitalizations and ICU visits, whereas non-urgent health care utilization was assessed via providers seen, prescription usage and number of missed school and workdays, Aquino told Healio.
“While further study is needed, children with comorbid asthma and atopic dermatitis require support to decrease unnecessary urgent and non-urgent health care utilization and optimize atopic dermatitis and asthma control,” Aquino said.
Another grant-winning abstract sought to uncover whether there are differences in how patients with mild asthma (n = 20) and parents of children with mild asthma (n = 20) define the disease through focus groups.
Researchers also inquired about treatments and patient concerns, according to the abstract.
“There is significant heterogeneity in the definition and treatment preferences among patients and parents of those with [mild asthma],” Emma Greimann, MD, internal medicine resident at University of Michigan Medical School, and colleagues wrote.
Based on these findings, Greimann and colleagues noted the relevance of shared decision-making in the abstract.
Similar to the second abstract, the third abstract involved a focus group to assist in establishing a rural school engagement strategy for stock inhaler programming.
During the 2-hour group session, Paige Hardy, MPH, research coordinator at the University of Illinois Chicago, and colleagues reported notable themes of “successful engagement strategies, communication with schools, unique characteristics of rural schools and stock inhaler implementation barriers” in the abstract.
The final strategy is made up of seven steps and starts with identifying and engaging key local school health champions, according to the graphic in the abstract. After this, the researchers behind the strategy recommend performing a community-led needs assessment and teaming up with the identified health champion(s) to approach schools in the community.
The last three steps are “highlight the benefits and barriers of school health policies with rural schools,” “guided implementation of health policy and/or protocol” and “ongoing support and evaluation,” according to the graphic.
The last grant-winning abstract collected mean PM2.5 and volatile organic compound concentrations via sensor within the homes of children with asthma, as well as self/parent-reported asthma control, over 3 months.
Results of this pilot study by Matthew McCulloch, MD, assistant professor at Children’s Hospital Colorado, are not outlined in the abstract but will be available during the meeting presentation.
The Healio team will be onsite in Boston during ACAAI 2024. Follow our coverage of the meeting here.
References:
- Aquino M, et al. Health care utilization in urban children with asthma and atopic dermatitis. Presented at: ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 24-28, 2024; Boston.
- Greimann E, et al. Mild asthma — What matters to patients and parents. Presented at: ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 24-28, 2024; Boston.
- Hardy P, et al. Rural school engagement and stock inhalers: Utilizing a focus group to guide implementation strategies. Presented at: ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 24-28, 2024; Boston.
- McCulloch M, et al. Indoor air quality in the homes of children with asthma. Presented at: ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 24-28, 2024; Boston.