RESUMO
Initiated in response to community concerns about high levels of air pollution and asthma, the Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Project was conducted as a collaboration between a community-based organization, a non-governmental environmental health program, and academic researchers. This community-engaged research project aimed to produce real-time, community-level air quality information through the establishment of a community air monitoring network (CAMN) of 40 low-cost particulate matter (PM) monitors in Imperial County, California. Methods used to involve the community partner organization and residents in the development, operation, and use of the CAMN included the following: (1) establishing equitable partnerships among the project collaborators; (2) forming a community steering committee to guide project activities; (3) engaging residents in data collection to determine monitor sites; (4) providing hands-on training to assemble and operate the air monitors; (5) conducting focus groups to guide display and dissemination of monitoring data; and (6) conducting trainings on community action planning. This robust community engagement in the project resulted in increased awareness, knowledge, capacity, infrastructure, and influence for the community partner organization and among community participants. Even after the conclusion of the original research grant funding for this project, the CAMN continues to be operated and sustained by the community partner, serving as a community resource used by residents, schools, researchers, and others to better understand and address air pollution and its impacts on community health, while strengthening the ability of the community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from harmful air pollution.
Assuntos
Poluentes Atmosféricos/análise , Poluição do Ar/estatística & dados numéricos , Monitoramento Ambiental/métodos , Material Particulado/análise , Poluição do Ar/análise , California , Participação da Comunidade , Pesquisa Participativa Baseada na Comunidade , Humanos , MéxicoRESUMO
OBJECTIVES: Asthma prevalence for different ethnic groups in the United States, beyond white, black and Hispanic, is seldom reported. We compared the prevalence of asthma diagnosis among various Hispanic and Asian American ethnic subgroups using data collected from the school-based California Healthy Kids Survey. METHODS: The California Healthy Kids Survey was administered to 462 147 public school students in the seventh, ninth, and 11th grades throughout California during the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years. Prevalence of lifetime asthma diagnosis was calculated for 11 Asian American Pacific Islander subgroups and 8 Hispanic subgroups. RESULTS: Asthma prevalence among Hispanic subgroups ranged from 13.2% for Mexican American students to 22.8% for Puerto Rican students and 23.0% among Cuban American students. Lifetime asthma diagnosis among the 11 Asian American Pacific Islander subgroups ranged from 10.9% among Korean American students to 23.8% among Filipino American students. CONCLUSIONS: The survey revealed substantial variation in asthma prevalence between the different Hispanic and Asian American Pacific Islander subgroups and that Pacific Islanders, Filipinos, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans are at elevated risk for asthma. Differences in the distributions of characteristics related to country of birth, residential history, generational status, and/or degree of acculturation might account for much of the observed differences in asthma prevalence between ethnic subgroups. Previous asthma prevalence estimates for Asians or Hispanics are in part a function of the particular ethnic composition of the population under investigation. We suggest that asthma studies that include a substantial number of Asian Pacific Islander and Hispanic persons use a more detailed categorization of race/ethnicity.