Development of a Predictive Asthma Risk Index (ARI) for Use by Ohio Schools

Study Purpose and Questions: The current prevalence rate for asthma among Ohio's children 0-17 years of age is 10.7%. Next to home, children spend a significant amount of time in school, where indoor air quality (IAQ) depends not only on indoor sources and building features, but also outdoor air quality. The purpose of this study was to develop an asthma risk index (ARI) for Ohio elementary schools.

Methods: We developed an asthma risk index (ARI) based on extant data sources including United States Environmental Protection Agency Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) Model, the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA), and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) traffic mapping/GIS files. The ARI is compared to school-wide indicators of socio-economic status (e.g. free lunches) and asthma risk (e.g. absenteeism rates).

Results: We anticipate that schools located in urban settings, particularly those downwind of industrial complexes and in high traffic volume areas, will have higher risk rankings and higher asthma prevalence rates. Such findings may have environmental justice ramifications.

Conclusions: The ARI is a potentially valuable predictive tool that can be used by school districts to predict asthma risks for students in relation to other schools across the state and to prioritize efforts to address remediation in high-risk districts.