WHY BREATHE LA : EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Asthma Lung Power

BREATHE California of Los Angeles County (BREATHE LA) is dedicated to clean air and healthy lungs in Los Angeles County. Our innovative programs serve needs specific to our communities and include Asthma Lung Power, empowering children to understand and take control of thier asthma.

Asthma in California from the California Asthma Coalition (CalASTHMA)
•    Asthma makes it hard for many of California’s children to live, learn, and play. In California, about 1 in 6 children under 18 years of age has been diagnosed with asthma. This is higher than rates found in the United States overall. These figures likely underestimate the true prevalence of asthma.
•    Hospitalization: Between 160 and 204 out of every 100,000 children under the age of 15 are hospitalized each year in California because of asthma. This comes to over 14,000 hospitalizations per year.
•    School Absenteeism: Nationwide, approximately 14 million school days are missed every year due to asthma, a rate of nearly 4 days per child with asthma per year. Nearly a quarter of children with asthma miss school some time during the year due to asthma. In California, about half (49.5%) of children with current asthma missed at least one day of school in the past year due to asthma.
•    Health Disparities: The hospitalization rate for asthma in California is more than three times higher for African American children than for other children. Currently in California, there are 1.3 million Latinos, including approximately 600,000 Latino children, who suffer from asthma. Since Latinos are currently the state’s fastest growing ethnic group and will eventually account for the majority of Californians, the potential impact of asthma on California and this population is enormous. Nationally, children in low-income families are more likely to have been diagnosed with asthma than children in families who are not poor.
•    Asthma Costs California Lots of Money: Asthma hospitalizations cost $667 million in California in 2004. The average cost per stay for asthma in California was $19,093 in 2004. Of these stays, 35.4% are paid through Medi-Cal.
•    Poor Environmental Conditions Mean More Asthma Attacks: Evidence is most consistent for air pollution created from vehicular traffic, especially diesel traffic, and some industrial processes; poorly maintained schools and substandard housing with mold, dust, and cockroaches; and secondhand smoke. Concern is increasing about cleaning products and pesticides.
•    Families alone cannot initiate large-scale changes to improve their children’s environments and reduce the frequency of their asthma attacks. We must develop effective strategies to reduce asthma triggers through viable public policy.

Optimal asthma management is complex and requires clinical, socioeconomic, environmental, and familial continuous and consistent interventions. BREATHE LA currently addresses this multi-pronged approach to improving asthma management by implementing the Lung Power asthma management program. We focus Lung Power in areas heavily impacted by both stationary and mobile source pollutants, and are involved in asthma and tobacco prevention coalitions throughout the region, with strong partners who are medical professionals, educators, and grassroots community leaders.

BREATHE LA Asthma Lung Power program is hands-on, interactive, and facilitator-led. Developed by Registered Respiratory Therapists, Lung Power has been approved by local physicians as an effective asthma management program. Best implemented in four or five day consecutive sessions, one-and-a-half-hour long to students in grades 3-6, and younger if accompanied by a parent/guardian, Lung Power uses innovative activities to educate and engage parents and kids.

• Expand asthma management initiative through programs that involve medical professionals volunteering, through educator conferences, and by developing mechanisms to interact with students and adults to successfully assist them in reducing exposure to asthma triggers, and manage their condition through best practices, including appropriate use of medications and monitoring tools.
• Reduce costs of delivering Lung Power by partnering with clinics and agencies, such as the Real Medicine Foundation Crenshaw/Florence Clinic.
• Implement online interactive Lung Power program.
• Educate 10 Respiratory Care students per semester attending El Camino College, East LA College, Compton College and/or L.A. Southwest College, replacing the certified Respiratory Therapist at triple to four times the stipend rate.
• Further refine the culturally competent/sensitive components of parent/guardian-involved, culturally competent Continuum of Care for effective asthma management for different demographics.
• Measure reduction of presentation of uncontrolled asthma to the ER from SPAs 6, 7, and 8 at the second year follow-up, following one year of development and implementation.
• Utilize the results of the currently funded Breath of Life Index to make more effective Lung Power with this tool to assess risk of future asthma exacerbations in children that is reproducible and accurate. Unlike other chronic diseases, asthma does not have a single test to accurately assess disease control (i.e. serum hemoglobin measures for diabetes), and the BLI will be an important tool to manage asthma.
• Institute Lung Power Asthma Camps in partnerships w/HMOs.
• Utilize and distribute BREATHE LA Asthma Lung Power brochures in 5 languages ( English, Spanish, Armenian, Chinese, Korean) at multicultural health events in Los Angeles County.