School Environmental Exposures and Measures of the Asthmatic Disease Process

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This dissertation study will investigate whether school environmental exposures and building characteristics affect biochemical and clinical markers of disease activity in children with physician diagnosed asthma. A cohort of 65,100 elementary school aged children with asthma will be recruited through Group Health Cooperative, a regional non profit health maintenance organization. The children will be asked to provide exhaled breath samples and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) measurements during a home visit and then twice during a single school visit. The breath samples will be analyzed for fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO), a sensitive and non invasive measure of lower airway inflammation. During the school visit, data on school environmental exposures and classroom and school building characteristics will be collected through a combination of direct sampling, measurements, and observation. Environmental exposures of primary interest include animal and pest allergens in settled dust, particulate matter d2.5<m, carbon dioxide (as a marker of ventilation adequacy), relative humidity, and observed moisture or mold. Associations between these exposures and changes in children's asthma health outcomes (FENO and FEV1) during the course of a school day (morning to afternoon) and between a weekend and a weekday will be examined. Similar analyses will investigate associations between a range of classroom and building features and these within child changes in health outcomes. School features will include type of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, classroom construction materials, furnishings, decorations, instructional and cleaning supplies, and school building structure and location. In a subset of schools, selected environmental samples and measures will be repeated in additional classrooms during a follow up visit in order to collect data on variability of these environmental exposures in school settings. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]