Non-profit

The Asthma Regional Council brings together the six New England states to address the environmental contributors to asthma. Federal, state and municipal officials, plus selected NGOs, work together to identify policies and programs that will improve asthma outcomes for both children and adults. Our multi-disciplinary partners include public health, environment, health care, education, housing and academia. Our primary focus include reducing ambient and indoor air pollution through diesel reduction efforts, promoting healthy homes and schools, promoting asthma surveillance across the states, and working with the health sectors on improved asthma management programs that include an environmental assessment and remediation component.

The AIR Program was started in August 2005 to address the needs of people with frequent Emergency Department visits for asthma. There were over 1,100 patients who accounted for 3,200 patient visits in our Emergency Department for asthma from July 2004 to June 2005. We offer all patients with moderate - severe persistent asthma with 2 or more ED visits for asthma in the previous year the AIR Program. The average number of ED asthma visits for AIR participants is 4.67 in the 12 months prior to AIR. We provide 5 visits over 6 months. The first and last visit are one-on-one visits with a Respiratory Care Practitioner trained as an Asthma Educator. The middle three visits are small group sessions. The primary focus of the AIR Program is training patients with asthma in the use of an Asthma Action Plan. Other topics include the avoiding environmental airway irritants, proper inhaled medication techniques, understanding the therapeutic and side effects of their asthma medications and effective communication skill for discussing their care with their doctor.

For the first 100 patients, Emergency Department visits decreased for those who participated in the AIR Program. ED visits in the AIR Program population from enrollment to present day (6 months) was 0.31 visits. ED visits in a control population from the same asthmatic cohort (that refused the AIR Program) was 0.84 visits. Improvement in Asthma Quality of Life (AQOL) scores for patients attending AIR from baseline to last visit was statistically significant. The AQOL score for SYMPTOMS mean difference was 1.68 from baseline (p=0.0001, 95CI 0.85 to 2.5). The AQOL PSYCHOLOGIC score mean difference was 1.88 from baseline (p=0.0002, 95CI 0.89 to 2.86).

In response to the growing asthma problem, EPA created a national, multifaceted asthma education and outreach program to share information about environmental factors -- found indoors and outdoors -- that trigger asthma. Although there is no cure, asthma can be controlled through medical treatment and management of environmental asthma triggers. EPA's goal is to reduce exposure to indoor asthma triggers and improve the quality of life for 6.5 million people by 2012.

EPA's Asthma Program raises awareness about asthma and environmental factors that trigger asthma attacks; helps people with asthma and their families manage environmental triggers in their homes; works to reduce children's exposure to indoor asthma triggers at schools and day care centers; and promotes environmental management as a component of medical and health care asthma management practices