Childhood Asthma Study Shows Home-Based Interventions Are Cost-Effective

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provided major funding to researchers at seven centers across the United States for the two-year study. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH, also supported the research. Study results are now available online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

“While the interventions were clearly effective in reducing asthma symptoms, we wanted to know whether the measures were cost-effective,” says Meyer Kattan, M.D., a pediatric pulmonologist with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and lead author on the study.

The home-based program was designed to target six major classes of allergens that trigger asthma symptoms — dust mites, cockroaches, pet dander, rodents, passive smoking and mold. The environmental interventions were tailored to each child’s sensitivity to the selected allergens and evidence of exposure to these asthma triggers.

Those enrolled in the program received educational home visits that included specific measures for reducing or eliminating allergen levels inside the home. These included allergen-impermeable covers on the child’s mattress, box spring and pillows, air purifiers with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, vacuum cleaners equipped with HEPA filters, and professional pest control.

The home-based interventions resulted in significant improvement in health status and reductions in resource use among the asthmatic children. Children who received the intervention had 19 percent fewer unscheduled clinic visits and a 13 percent reduction in the use of albuterol inhalers, small applicators that deliver asthma medication directly into the lungs. Children in the intervention group experienced 38 more symptom-free days over the course of the study than those in the control group.

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