Asthma hospitalization data are both extremely limited and very powerful. These data only record those patients so acutely affected they had to be admitted to the hospital for their condition. They do not reveal how many people have asthma, how many people visited private doctors or outpatient clinics for asthma, how many people visited hospital emergency rooms for asthma or how many people died from asthma. Nor do hospitalizations measure the extent to which indoor or outdoor environmental triggers exacerbate asthma. These are all areas that need more study.
Even with their limitations, hospitalization data are invaluable in describing unnecessary suffering. The patient's average length of stay was more than three days, which is quite a long time to have difficulty breathing. Asthma is classified as an ambulatory care sensitive condition which suggests that the vast majority, if not all, hospitalizations for asthma could be avoided. One study associated high rates of hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions with lack of health care access. (4) Another indicates that those asthma patients given the proper medication, education and information about environmental controls have dramatically reduced hospitalization rates. (5) And other studies indicate an association between high rates of pediatric asthma hospitalizations and indoor and outdoor environmental triggers. (6, 7) Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this report to comment on how these factors contribute to asthma hospitalization in the four counties. However, some specific questions are raised by the analysis presented in this report:
• Why do Latino and Asian children have rates that exceed the Healthy People 2000 objectives in Alameda and San Francisco counties but not in Contra Costa and Solano counties? While these Alameda and San Francisco rates are consistent with the California Chartbook rates, (8) Latino children in the west are generally identified as having lower rates. (9)
• What do the high rates in African Americans mean? Is race/ethnicity a marker for socioeconomic status, urbanization, health access, bias on the part of health professionals or a combination of these factors?
• Do the higher rates in urban areas represent the effect of environmental triggers, the difficulties with health care access or other, as yet unknown, factors?
Both the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) of the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control emphasize the importance of organizing asthma coalitions at a local level. For these coalitions to be effective, they need research that is relevant to their region. Nowhere is this more important than in California, a state that is large in both landmass and population. In prioritizing counties in the state, one might dismiss Solano, with a low county asthma hospitalization rate of 127 per 100,000. Yet the sub-county analysis of Solano revealed a zip code in Vallejo that has a rate of 261 per 100,000 which greatly exceeds the Healthy People 2000 rate of 160. Even in counties such as Alameda and San Francisco, which had high county rates, there were distinct zip code level variations. Moreover, the association with asthma hospitalizations and urban areas almost demands sub-county analysis.
The analysis presented in this report is a first step to help county agencies and community based organizations plan, design and implement meaningful interventions to reduce the effects of asthma in their area. It may also help with community organizing and education.
Excerpt from: Age-Adjusted Asthma Hospitalization Data: 1994-96 Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and Solano Counties Regional Asthma Management and Prevention Initiative April, 1999
West Berkeley Air Monitoring Studies & Risk Assessments |
- NEW West Berkeley Community Monitoring Project
Global Community Monitor
- NEW: Chart of West Berkeley Air Pollution Sources
California Air Resources Board 2005 data for industrial facilities in zip code 94710
- The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (finally) required Pacific Steel Casting Company (PSC) to prepare a Health Risk Assessment (HRA) to meet the requirements of the Air Toxics Hot Spots (ATHS) program.
- A Screening Assessment of Ambient Air: Pacific Steel Casting Company
ENSR Health Sciences, March 1989
- Toxicological Analysis of Chemicals Used at Pacific Steel Casting Company
Selina Bendix, 9 November 1990
- Ambient Air Pollution and Health Risks at Harrison Street
Acurex Environmental Corporation, December 10, 1997
- West Berkeley Air Monitoring Part 1, West Berkeley Air Monitoring Part 2
Applied Measurement Science, September 6, 2000
- PM10 Monitoring at the Berkeley Recycling Center Materials Recovery Facility
July, 2002 to January, 2003 Applied Measurement Science
- Berkeley Solid Waste Management Transfer Station Air Quality Evaluation and Recommended Mitigation Measures, ESA Environmental Science Associates, April 29, 2003
- Update on Air Quality at the proposed site of the Ursula Sherman Village
Prepared for: Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, September 30, 2002
- Harrison Soccer Fields Air Study Part 1, and Harrison Soccer Fields Air Study Part 2
Applied Measurement Science, June 2003
- Qualitative Human Health Risk Assessment For Airborne Particulate Matter at Harrison Street Park
Charles E. Lambert Ph.D. DABT McDaniel Lambent, Inc. April 25, 2003
- Assessment and Recommendations re: Air Quality at Harrison Play Fields project
Date: October 25, 1999 Poki Namkung, M.D., M.P.H., City of Berkeley Health Officer
|
More on Asthma in Berkeley
