Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Volume 103, Issue 6, Pages 1124-1127Publisher
AMER PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOC INC
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300983
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Objectives. We assessed changes in asthma-related health care use by low-income children in communities across the country where 6 Allies Against Asthma coalitions (Hampton Roads, VA; Washington, DC; Milwaukee, WI; King County/Seattle, WA; Long Beach, CA; and Philadelphia, PA) mobilized stakeholders to bring about policy changes conducive to asthma control. Methods. Allies intervention zip codes were matched with comparison communities by median household income, asthma prevalence, total population size, and race/ethnicity. Five years of data provided by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on hospitalizations, emergency department (ED) use, and physician urgent care visits for children were analyzed. Intervention and comparison sites were compared with a stratified recurrent event analysis using a Cox proportional hazard model. Results. In most of the assessment years, children in Allies communities were significantly less likely (P < .04) to have an asthma-related hospitalization, ED visit, or urgent care visit than children in comparison communities. During the entire period, children in Allies communities were significantly less likely (P < .02) to have such health care use. Conclusions. Mobilizing a diverse group of stakeholders, and focusing on policy and system changes generated significant reductions in health care use for asthma in vulnerable communities.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available