The rise of asthma control and impairment as the main indicators of management has renewed interest in a longstanding challenge: Variability in the perception and experience of asthma symptoms. Parents and children have been shown to differ in their assessments of the existence of asthma, let alone the presence or severity of specific symptoms. And [...]
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Global Asthma Report 2011
Worldwide, 235 million people have asthma. Although effective treatment is available, many people with asthma, especially in low- and middle-income countries, are unable to access or afford it. A new report, and accompanying website, released today by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in [...]
Disease labels in national surveys – the case of COPD
The new CDC Framework for COPD Prevention, much better thought of as a well developed agenda for applied public health, estimates that half of the people with COPD in the US have not been diagnosed. The report – developed by a group of experts during a workshop in 2010 – proposes first among its four [...]
Public health, population health, and mHealth
The stabilizing prevalence of asthma and the origins of the disease Statistics Canada recently reported that the prevalence of asthma among 2-7 year old children had declined to its lowest level in more than 10 years, from 13.2 percent in 2000-01 to 9.8 percent in 2008-09, the most recent year for which data are available. [...]
Oxygen is an essential medicine: A call to international action (Now only $29.27)
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, the journal of the International Union, just published an article I was really happy to see. It argues that while hypoxemia is a big public health problem in developing countries, a lack of access to oxygen treatment and pulse oximetry gets “little or no attention” in global [...]
Measuring respiratory health in longitudinal studies
The journal Biodemography and Social Biology has just published a special issue devoted to the use of biomeasures in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), and more generally, to their value and role in longitudinal social science. The articles focus on a variety markers (from cardiovascular to metabolic) and includes a handful of thorough [...]
New AAAAI report on indoor air cleaners and filters
I think one of the most questions I was asked most often while working at the CDC was whether indoor air filters were effective at reducing symptoms of asthma and allergy. This week the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology has published a report on air filters and air cleaners that should help answer [...]
Our study of rural asthma is underway
Rural asthma study launching in the Midwest Novel technology automatically tracks where and when attacks occur Beginning next week, Madison-based Reciprocal Sciences, with funding from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will launch a new study to learn more about the problem of rural asthma in the Midwest. The study follows a recent [...]
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Asthma epidemiology review (February 16, 2010)
Recently-revised NIH guidelines encourage physicians to more closely monitor patients to ensure that treatments are controlling their symptoms and improving quality of life. The results has been growing interest in measures of asthma control yet relatively little work done to compare the various measures against other methods of classifying asthma. This week, JACI and ERJ [...]
Respiratory epidemiology review (February 9, 2010)
Work-related respiratory diseases in the EU [Sigsgaard et al - ERJ] New European Respiratory Society report surveys the epidemiology of the major occupational respiratory diseases in the EU, with a look at historic and contemporary risk factors, and an update on regulation. Highlights the emerging burden of occupational lung disease in “newer professions, such as public [...]
About
Medical anthropologist, asthma epidemiologist in Madison, WI. Co-Founder of Reciprocal Labs and Asthmapolis.
