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Awardee
San Joaquin Valley Health
Consortium
Fresno, California
Target Population
Residents of San Joaquin Valley reside in one of the four geographic areas with the highest asthma mortality rates in the United States. They are particularly vulnerable to excess asthma morbidity due to large proportions of ethnic minority populations and high poverty rates. The target population for the intervention will be lower income and rural communities including farm labor camps with language and cultural barriers. A special focus will be placed on Hispanic and Southeast Asian populations.
Proposed Strategy
A community needs assessment identified the primary need for this community to be a long-term, coordinated commitment to asthma control. This project seeks to address that need by employing a multi-tiered community approach of mass media, health care provider training, and outreach to schools and other community organizations. Specific activities include:
- A multicultural, multilingual mass media campaign of TV, radio, print and billboard in rural areas and farm labor camps;
- A media rally on World Asthma Day;
- Asthma Education Training;
- Interactive conferences for health professionals based on NIH practice guidelines;
- Training representatives of schools, churches, and child care centers to implement asthma-friendly programs and policies.
The proposed strategy will focus on three NAEPP goals:
- #1 -- To promote asthma awareness;
- #2 -- To diagnose and manage asthma; and
- #3 -- To implement community asthma programs and policies.
Anticipated Outcome
The goal is to create asthma coalitions that are self -sustaining and institutionalized within the community. Through successful implementation of the project's strategy to generate increased awareness of asthma related media messages, an increase in the number of people/parents who have sought care for asthma symptoms, and an increase in the number of community organizations actively involved in the coalition, it is anticipated that there will be a change in asthma related morbidity and mortality.
Medical outcomes will be evaluated from major healthcare agencies/clinics records. Desired health care provider behavioral change includes increased prescription of anti-inflammatory medicines, increased written asthma action plans for patients, increased referral and self-referral to asthma self-management education classes, and increased prescriptions for peak flow meters.