Detroit Head Start Asthma Project
Asthma is one of the leading chronic diseases of childhood and has disproportionate impact on lower income, urban minority children. The Detroit Head Start Asthma Project was designed to address the needs of a high risk group of preschool children with asthma. The project was a partnership between The University of Michigan Schools of Public Health and Medicine, the Detroit Department of Human Services, and six Detroit Head Start agencies. The primary goal was to engage Head Start personnel and families in efforts to improve the management of asthma symptoms among children enrolled in Head Start. This project was designed as a randomized clinical trial: three agencies received the intervention in Year 1, and the three wait-list control group agencies received the intervention in Year 2.
The specific aims of the project included:
- Identification and health assessment of children with asthma symptoms
- Asthma training for Head Start personnel at the three agencies randomly selected to receive the intervention
- Evaluation of the research partnership with Head Start
- Program evaluation with dissemination and discussion of findings with Head Start personnel and Head Start parents.
The initial screening process resulted in 3,256 returned health surveys, and 27.3% (n=888) of the children were identified with active asthma symptoms. A total of 675 caretakers/parents participated in the baseline interview, and 487 caretakers completed the follow-up assessment. Data analysis and preparation of manuscripts for publication are currently underway. Preliminary findings reveal improvement in asthma morbidity (i.e. annual symptom days, asthma attacks, use of emergency department and hospitalizations for asthma care), improvement in caretakers' level of communication with health care providers, and increase in caretakers' participation with Head Start staff for asthma management of children. Data analysis and preparation of reports is in process.
Project-related Publications:
Nelson, B.W., Clark, N.M., Valerio, M.A., Houle, C.R., Brown, R.W., Brown, C. Working with a Head Start population with asthma: Lessons learned. Journal of School Health, 76(6): 273-275, August 2006.
Project-related Presentations:
Nelson, B.W. Sustainability: Building capacity to assist Head Start children with asthma. Community-based participatory research grantee meeting, San Franscisco, November 2004.
Nelson, B.W. Outcomes of the Detroit Head Start Asthma Project. Detroit Health Advisory Committee Meeting, Detroit, November 2005; November 2006.
For more information on this specific project, please contact Belinda Nelson at belindan@umich.edu