Asthma is a chronic lung inflammatory disease that causes inflammation and narrowing of the airways. Swelling of the airways can be caused by the activation of cytokines that lead to an inflammatory or allergenic-like response. Environmental factors, both indoors and outdoors, have been found to increase the likelihood of asthma in children. Among those found to impact disease are air pollutants such as ozone, nitric dioxide, and particulate matter, as well as home exposures, like cockroaches and rodents. Those who have multiple or increased exposure to these pollutants are more likely to experience exacerbated symptoms and uncontrolled asthma. There currently is no cure for asthma, but effective therapies have been found to treat the symptoms associated with asthmatic episodes. During an asthma attack, due to narrowing of the airways, individuals experience wheezing, chest tightness, and even shortness of breath. To combat these occurrences, physicians use inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), Beta-agonist, or a combination of both to relieve symptoms.
In the United States asthma affects 25.8 million people. This number is projected to increase as the US continuously becomes more industrialized and as environmental conditions deteriorate. Research conducted by the Center for Disease Control concluded that the prevalence of asthma increased amongst the general population, however, once the data were disaggregated by race, age, gender, and SES significant increases were noted amongst some groups but not others. Most notably, on average, children, women, Puerto Ricans, and people living in poverty as defined by federal guidelines had the highest asthma prevalence.
Chronic diseases like asthma also produce substantial burdens on the healthcare system. Asthmatics on average require three-times as many prescriptions, twice as many emergency room visits and four-times as many hospitalizations as individuals without asthma in the same demographic population. Additionally, when an expenditure analysis was carried out, it revealed that children with asthma cost approximately three-times more per capita per child than adolescents without asthma. Chronic disease occurs over the duration of individual lives. Thus, poorly managed, they will cause preventable increases in disability-adjusted-life years, premature death, and health care expenditure for both the individual and the broader healthcare system. The observed increases will predominantly impact the indicated high-risk populations.
The prevalence of asthma in urban settings was anticipated by researchers based on known environmental influences. However, the discovery of a higher prevalence and mortality rate of asthma within impoverished communities, in comparison to other urban communities, is not yet fully understood. Through this research an association between high-risk populations with uncontrolled asthma and a lack of patient education, low socioeconomic status, and utilization of Medicaid insurance was found, which indicates the influence of these factors on asthma control. Improving current asthma interventions by remodeling them to take a broader stance on asthma prevention, treatment and maintenance and through acknowledgement of the impact disparities, asthma will likely be better controlled for all individuals in the Unites States.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/23779 |
| Date | 12 July 2017 |
| Creators | Hartt, Angeleque Shenice |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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