Action Towards Health Equity and Improved Air Quality in the Duwamish Valley: A Multilevel Asthma Intervention

Action Towards Health Equity and Improved Air Quality in the Duwamish Valley: A Multilevel Asthma Intervention

The goal of this randomized control trial is to learn if box fans and filters can reduce asthma symptoms and improve indoor air quality in children ages 6 - 17 years old with asthma living in the Duwamish Valley, Seattle, Washington. The main question it aims to answer are:

• Do box fans with filters improve asthma symptoms?
• Do box fans with filters improve an objective measure used to monitor lung function known as forced expiratory volume during the first second (FEV1)? Researchers will compare children living in households with high quality filters to those in households with sham filters to see if air quality and asthma symptoms improve.

Participants will

• fill out several questionnaires
• monitor their lung function with a peak flow meter
• place an air monitor in their homes to monitor indoor air quality
• run the box fan when they are at home

Inclusion Criteria:

• age (6-17 years)
• poorly controlled physician diagnosed asthma defined as more than four days with asthma symptoms in the past two weeks, use of asthma rescue medication for more than four days in the past two weeks, or health care utilization due to asthma in the past year (hospitalization, emergency room visit, or unscheduled clinic visit)
• living in Georgetown and South Park neighborhoods of Seattle

Exclusion Criteria:

• children with unstable housing or shared custody arrangements