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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Kristin D. Wilson, MHA¹, David A. Sterling, PhD, CIH², Emily V. Pike, MPH³, Colleen M. Richmond, RN, BSN, MPH³, and Richard S. Kurz, PhD⁴. (1) St. Louis University School of Public Health, Salus Center Rm. 350, 3545 Lafayette, St. Louis, MO 63104, 314-977-8153, wilsonkd@slu.edu, (2) School of Public Health, Saint Louis University, 3545 Lafayette Avenue, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63104, (3) School of Public Health, St. Louis University, 3545 Lafayette, 3rd floor, St. Louis, MO 63104, (4) Department of Health Management and Policy, Saint Louis University School of Public Health, 3545 Lafayette Ave., St. Louis, MO 63104

In 2002, the CDC published “Strategies for Addressing Asthma Within a Coordinated School Health Program”, recommending access to a consulting physician in all schools. From a local perspective, school nurses have also described the need through focus groups for a consulting physician to enhance their abilities to deliver important school health services. Although based on expert opinion, little evidence demonstrating the impact of this CDC recommendation exists. Through a CDC-funded demonstration project, Controlling Asthma in American Cities, the St. Louis Regional Asthma Consortium and SLU School of Public Health worked with a local school district to implement a consulting physician model to enhance school health services for children with asthma. Children in grades K-6 were followed as a group cohort prior to model implementation (2003-2004 n=4620) and post-model implementation (2004-2005 n=4625). The school nurses tracked the number of children sent home due to asthma symptoms and total number of children sent home due to illness. With a consulting physician, a child was less likely to be sent home due to asthma symptoms (OR .64, CI .46, .88). Without a consulting physician, children overall were 65% more likely to be sent home due to illness (OR 1.65, CI 1.52, 1.79). These results provide evidence demonstrating that the consulting physician model can improve the delivery of school health services, supporting the CDC recommendation for children with asthma.

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

• Describe school health services for children with asthma within a coordinated school health program.
• Articulate the consulting physician model used to enhance school health services.
• Describe the benefits of the consulting physician model to enhance school health services for children with asthma.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation