County Efforts Reduce Asthma Attacks
January 4, 2006 | Asthma
The number of children hospitalized because of asthma has dramatically declined in King County.
One in every 20 children who live in King County has asthma. Isabella Figueroa is one of them. But she and thousands of other children are breathing a little easier.
“Some days you can feel horrible and other days perfectly fine, like you don’t have asthma,” she said.
A test in the doctor’s office measures lung capacity.
The King County Health Department reports compared with four years ago, 39 percent fewer kids are ending up in the hospital because their asthma.
This major improvement happened through education and coordinated care for kids. The care includes doctors, nurses, home health workers, parents and kids.
“There’s mounting evidence that if you do the right things to a child’s environment, if they are living in the wrong environment, you can improve things and improve their symptoms about as well as you would with the right medications,” said Jim Stout of Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic.
The county-designed programs offer home visits to help families identify and then reduce things that trigger asthma, like dust mites, mold, cockroaches and cigarette smoke.
“I’m allergic to dust mites which are a trigger for asthma and they can come from your mattress and bed covers, and so we put plastic sheeting on top of the mattress, which helps,” Isabella said.
Some low-income families were given these mattress and pillow covers and high-quality vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters to improve their air quality at home.
The health care community in King County has been trying to lessen the impact of asthma for years. There is still much work to be done. But when fewer kids end up in the hospital it’s an encouraging sign that community efforts are effective and finally paying off.
Health officials say the best way to continue this positive trend is with more education about asthma and its triggers, and improving the quality of low-income housing.