Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104218

Mike Tringale, MS¹, Julia Brault¹, Winston Liao, PhD², Michelle Hsiang, PhD³, Rebecca Perritt, MS⁴, and Evangeline Waldron, BS¹. (1) Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, 1233 20th Street, N.W., Washiington, DC, DC 20036, 202-466-7643, mike@aafa.org, (2) Clinical Research, Fulcrum Pharma Developments Inc., 2803 Slater Road, Suite 125, Morrisville, NC 27560, (3) Center for Research in Education, RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Road, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194, (4) Statistics Research Division, RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Road, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194

Although asthma is a chronic disease affecting more than 20 million Americans, and the most common chronic disease among children, many people are unaware of its prevalence, causes, triggers and impact on the lives of the affected individuals and their families. To address the issue of informing the public about the causes of asthma as well as its risk factors, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) has developed an annual U.S. Asthma Capitals^TM Research and Rankings as part of its public awareness campaign about asthma. In a collaborative effort between AAFA and RTI International, three sets of factors (risk factors, medical factors, prevalence factors) were identified, assigned weights, and entered into a computational algorithm to determine the rankings for the top 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S. A wide range of information from more than a dozen sources of state and municipal data was examined, including pollen levels, smoking laws, air quality, number of asthma medication prescriptions per capita, and morbidity and mortality statistics. This presentation will provide the rationale and methodology for the rankings. We will also discuss the implications of the rankings from the public's access and use of these data, especially as they relate to health risk communication and public health policy.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Describe the rationale for the U.S. Asthma Capitals^TM Research and Rankings.
• Explain the methodological approach used to determine the rankings.
• Discuss the implications of the rankings as they relate to health risk communication and public health policy.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.