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Michigan Center for the Environment and Children's Health (MCECH)
The overall
goal of MCECH was to investigate the environmental,
pathophysiological and clinical mechanisms of childhood asthma which translated into risk assessment and comprehensive community and
household level interventions aimed at increasing knowledge and
behaviors to reduce asthma-related environmental triggers to
individuals and neighborhoods. There were three core projects of
MCECH - two of which were a combined exposure assessment and
intervention project which is being implemented in the southwest and
east sides of Detroit (called Community Action Against Asthma, or
CAAA)*, and one of which was based at the University of Michigan
School of Medicine. The three projects were engaged in coordinated
interdisciplinary research aimed at:
- increasing knowledge and
behavior to reduce environmental hazards in households and
neighborhoods, thereby improving asthma-related health status,
through a community-based household and neighborhood level
intervention;
- examining the effects of daily
and seasonal fluctuations in indoor and outdoor ambient air
quality on pulmonary function and severity of asthma symptoms; and
- determining the effects of
allergen-induced local, excessive production of chemokines on
redox status and innervation of the bronchial tree.
In addition to those projects,
funding was received in fall 2000 from NIEHS to conduct the
Community Organizing Network for Environmental Health (CONEH), which
built upon and integrated with the activities of CAAA. The
overall goal of CONEH was to reduce exposure to physical
environmental and psychosocial environmental stressors associated
with asthma severity and exacerbation, and to strengthen protective
factors that modify the effect of these stressors on children with
asthma, their caregivers, and the neighborhoods and broader
community in which they reside.
In order to both enhance the
effects of the present intervention and to expand the goals,
objectives, activities and evaluation design, the CONEH intervention
extended beyond the household and neighborhood levels and was
developing a more comprehensive approach with intervention and
evaluation activities that also targeted the broader community and
policy levels. The specific aims of the CONEH project were as
follows:
- to identify, prioritize, and
translate the relevant findings of the current CAAA data
collection activities, together with proposed additional CONEH
data collection activities, in order to guide the implementation
and evaluation of an expanded, multi-level intervention;
- to conduct and evaluate a
multi-level, community-based intervention in order to reduce
exposure to physical environmental and psychosocial environmental
stressors associated with childhood asthma severity and
exacerbation, and to strengthen protective factors (e.g., social
support, community capacity) that may modify the effects of these
stressors;
-
 to
examine whether the conducted multi-level, community-based
intervention enhances the effect of an intensive household
intervention on the health and well-being of children with asthma
and their caregivers; and
- to increase community awareness
and knowledge of factors associated with the environment and
asthma through the dissemination of research findings to community
residents in ways that are understandable and beneficial to the
community.
*The two projects of CAAA have been refunded effective 2007. For more information about the two newly funded projects, visit the CURRENT PROJECT MATRIX.
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