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Improving Technology Assisted Recording of Asthma Control in Children (ITRACC)
The goal of this randomized clinical control trial is to determine whether a sensor enabled, clinically integrated, mobile health asthma program can improve overall asthma control and management among children with moderate-to-severe asthma.
Improving Technology Assisted Recording of Asthma Control in Children (ITRACC)
SOAAR recruited 252 patients from Chicago-area clinics to participate in an asthma education and medication tracking program. Participants received comprehensive asthma education, optional environmental allergen testing, and quarterly surveys to complete. The intervention group utilized a sensor placed on their asthma inhalers to track their daily controller (ICS) and rescue (SABA) medication usage for one year and were followed by our research team and their health team. Control and intervention group participants received free asthma education, including an asthma action plan and environmental allergy testing. This study will help determine patient adherence to medication and test the effectiveness of the sensors in practice.
Geographic Variability in Childhood Asthma Prevalence in Chicago
This highly-cited 2008 paper was the first to empirically demonstrate the tremendous geographic variability of childhood asthma prevalence in Chicago–which ranged from 0 to 44% by neighborhood.
Geographic Variability in Childhood Asthma Prevalence in Chicago
Resources:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZG8pAhZROM
- Research Paper: Geographic variability in childhood asthma prevalence in Chicago, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (March 2008)
- Chicago Tonight – Phil Ponce interviews Dr. Ruchi Gupta (July 2008)
- Northwestern News: Childhood Asthma Varies By Neighborhood (February 2008)
- WTTW Chicago Tonight: Neighborhood Asthma
The Impact of Student-Directed Videos on Community Asthma Knowledge (START Program)
The START (Student Asthma Research Team) intervention was an after-school program where students were educated about asthma, participatory research methods, and media production to:
- Identify neighborhood factors affecting their own asthma through photography and writing and
- Address these factors by producing public service announcements to raise public awareness.
The Impact of Student-Directed Videos on Community Asthma Knowledge (START Program)
This study evaluated the effectiveness of the student-produced START videos. Community members:
- Completed a pre-test which assessed their pre-intervention asthma knowledge and behavior,
- Watched the videos,
- Immediately completed a post-test to assess post-intervention asthma knowledge and behavior, and
- Completed a post-test 4 months later.
Results:
The student-directed PSAs were found to significantly increase asthma knowledge among community members, irrespective of age, gender, or race. Increased knowledge persisted through the 4-month post PSA follow-up. Of the participants who were successfully contacted for the follow-up survey, nearly 40% reported meaningful behavior-change in response to the PSAs. This lead to the development of the SMART program and the most recent SMHRT curriculum that can be utilized by schools nationwide to help students better understand the health conditions in their community.
Resources:
- 2017 USAsthma Summit: “School-based asthma interventions, with lessons learned from START and SMART”.
- Research Paper: Perceived Factors Affecting Asthma Among Adolescents: Experiences and Findings From the StudenT Asthma Research Team pilot study, published by Journal of Asthma and Allergy Educators (February 2013)
- Asthma in Chicago, 2011 Report: Community Influences on Asthma
- Chicago Tribune (2013): Students take asthma awareness into their own hands
- Research Paper: The impact of student-directed videos on community asthma knowledge, published by Journal of Community Health (June 2013).
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Engaging Chicago Teens to Root Out Causes of Asthma
- CBS Chicago: Local Doctor–Violence can Trigger Asthma in Children
- Uplift High School START PSA: What is Asthma?
- Uplift High School START PSA: What Can My Community Do to Help Kids with Asthma?
Improving Community Asthma through a Student Media-Based Research Intervention (SMART Program)
SOAAR was funded by the American Lung Association to refine START by using mobile technology. The resulting intervention was called, “Student Media-based Asthma Research Team” (SMART) and was implemented at James Hedges Elementary in Back of the Yards and Beasley Elementary in Washington Park.
Improving Community Asthma through a Student Media-Based Research Intervention (SMART Program)
After identifying substantial disparities in childhood asthma within the city of Chicago, Dr. Gupta developed a strong interest in partnering with schools in communities with high asthma prevalence to investigate the community-level factors that may contribute to this elevated asthma burden.
She was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation via their Physician Faculty Scholars Program to develop and implement a media-based participatory asthma program for students with asthma called the STudent Asthma Research Team (START).
Learn about the history of the START and SMART programs: Watch Dr. Gupta’s presentation, listed below.
Dr. Ruchi Gupta does a wonderful job of providing summit participants with an overview of what the START and SMART programs have achieved, including an increase in students’ self-advocacy and empowerment and an increase in asthma awareness in the Chicago community.
To obtain a copy of the curriculum that Dr. Gupta refers to in the video, email [email protected].
Resources:
- Chicago Tribune: Students take asthma awareness into their own hands
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health Blog: Getting SMART About Asthma Education
- Hedges Elementary PSA: Asthma is Serious
- Hedges Elementary PSA: Asthma in My Community
- Hedges Elementary PSA: Asthma Triggers
- Hedges Elementary PSA: En español
- Hedges Elementary Blog Website
- Beasley Elementary PSA: Asthma Facts
- Beasley Elementary PSA: Asthma in the Community
Student Media-Based Health Research Team (SMHRT)
SMHRT is a comprehensive curriculum that can be shared with educators, public health practitioners, and community members to be utilized in schools to help empower students to research and understand the health conditions that affect their communities.
Student Media-Based Health Research Team (SMHRT)
SMHRT is a comprehensive curriculum that can be shared with educators, public health practitioners, and community members to be utilized in schools to help empower students to research and understand the health conditions that affect their communities. The curriculum gives teachers and students tools to create community-level change through building media-based interventions such as PSAs, educational videos, and visual campaigns. The SMHRT curriculums are free in USB format for any school who wishes to utilize it and have been consistently distributed nationwide.
- Students of any age may participate,
- Any chronic health condition may be studied
- Interventions may include PSAs, posters, fact sheets, and musical performances
If you are interested in ordering the free SMHRT Curriculum for your school, please contact [email protected] for more details!