RVA Breathes: A Richmond City Collaboration to Reduce Pediatric Asthma Disparities

Overview

The goal of this study is to evaluate a sustainable, community-engaged program to reduce asthma disparities among 5 to 11-year-old children in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond, an urban center, has been named the Asthma Capital, or "most challenging place to live in the U.S. with asthma," by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation three times in the last 5 years. To date, however, the city has no comprehensive, community-engaged asthma care program for those children at highest risk for poor asthma outcomes. To address this disparity, the study team engaged with community partners and completed a mixed-methods needs assessment to enhance understanding of the barriers and supports to asthma care for children and their families living in Richmond. Several key priority areas emerged: peer support, advocacy, treating the home as a system, increased school nurse education, and coordination with schools and providers. Working together, the community-engaged team translated needs assessment findings to RVA Breathes, a program coordinating asthma care across 4 sectors: family, home, community, and medical care.

RVA Breathes includes family-based asthma self-management education (delivered by Community Health Workers \[CHWs\] with the Institute for Public Health Innovation), home environmental remediation (with Richmond City Health Department's Healthy Homes Initiative), and a school nurse component (with elementary schools in the Richmond City Public School System). These interventions capitalize among existing resources and relationships with stakeholders in Richmond, each of which is committed to RVA Breathes. Two hundred-fifty children with asthma and their caregivers participated in a randomized clinical trial of RVA Breathes. After completing a baseline assessment, families were randomized to one of three conditions: 1) asthma education + home remediation + school intervention, 2) asthma education + home remediation and 3) comparator condition (Enhanced Standard of Care, E-SOC). Families participated in the program for 9 months and completed follow-up assessments (post-treatment and 3-, 6-, and 9-month) to measure changes in healthcare utilization and the impact of the program on child asthma outcomes. Conditions were compared on the primary outcome of asthma-related healthcare utilization, including asthma specific ED visits and hospital admissions. Secondary outcomes included need for controller medication use, asthma control, asthma symptoms, asthma action plans, and quality of life. We will also evaluate the sustainability of RVA Breathes after 9 months (without active intervention), including a review of qualitative data from participants and stakeholders in the program. Findings from this trial will allow for dissemination and implementation of RVA Breathes as a sustainable program in the Richmond are.