There are persistent disparities in the distribution of pediatric asthma morbidity. Populations at high risk for poor asthma control and repeated hospitalizations or emergency department (ED) visits often cluster within areas disproportionately impacted by asthma-relevant social and environmental risks. There is a fundamental gap, however, in the knowledge of how such risks can be identified and acted upon during inpatient pediatric asthma care. Much as marketers and political campaigns use geographic data to target resources, the contribution of the proposed research is to identify key geographic factors, or geomarkers, that could meaning- fully inform care and improve patient outcomes. The initial focus will be on geomarkers related to area-level, or neighborhood, poverty, housing quality, and health service access. The central hypothesis is that such geo- markers will predict asthma-related risk of readmission and ED revisit along with potentially modifiable patient characteristics. The rationale is that informed inpatient asthma care plans, aimed at reducing post-discharge morbidity, can be personalized from the moment a child arrives on the unit. Guided by strong preliminary data, this hypothesis will be tested with three specific aims: 1) Determine the extent to which geomarkers predict subsequent risk of readmission and ED revisit among hospitalized children with asthma; 2) Examine the association between geomarkers and corresponding patient-level risks; and 3) Develop and pilot the feasibility of an intervention to personalize a patient's chronic asthma care via a geomarker-based identification strategy and a community health worker. The proposed research is innovative because it would make novel use of public data in ways that characterize and predict an individual's risk, efficiently informing assessments and actions to be initiated early in a patient encounter. This will be significant because if inpatient clinical care is more effective and targeted, families will see improved satisfaction and reduced subsequent morbidity. Summary: The proposed project will bring a place-based approach to inpatient pediatric asthma care. Dr. Beck's research and clinical training, pilot work investigating these methods, and experienced mentorship and advisory team make him ideally suited to pursue this line of research. This award will provide him with the training and research needed to be successful in a future, large-scale trial of a geographically-grounded intervention. Furthermore, this career development award will facilitate Dr. Beck's development into a nationally- recognized independent investigator and leader conducting research that improves child health outcomes by identifying and mitigating key social and environmental determinants of health.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed research is relevant to public health because greater insight into risks a pediatric asthma patient faces in their home neighborhood could help to more effectively target hospital- and community-based resources and reduce asthma-related morbidity. While this application focuses on pediatric inpatient asthma, the concepts learned through this grant, as well as the career development activities pursued by the investigator, will be readily applicable to other conditions that are similarly impacted by the social and environmental determinants of health. Thus, the proposed research is relevant to the part of NIH's mission that pertains to fostering creative and innovative research strategies aimed at ultimately improving health.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
Project #
5K23AI112916-05
Application #
9534510
Study Section
Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation Research Committee (AITC)
Program Officer
Gondre-Lewis, Timothy A
Project Start
2014-08-04
Project End
2019-07-31
Budget Start
2018-08-01
Budget End
2019-07-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2018
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Department
Type
DUNS #
071284913
City
Cincinnati
State
OH
Country
United States
Zip Code
45229
Beck, Andrew F; Riley, Carley L; Taylor, Stuart C et al. (2018) Pervasive Income-Based Disparities In Inpatient Bed-Day Rates Across Conditions And Subspecialties. Health Aff (Millwood) 37:551-559
Hensley, Caroline; Heaton, Pamela C; Kahn, Robert S et al. (2018) Poverty, Transportation Access, and Medication Nonadherence. Pediatrics 141:
Shah, Anita N; Beck, Andrew F; Sucharew, Heidi J et al. (2018) Parental Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience on Coping After Discharge. Pediatrics 141:
Shah, Anita N; Simmons, Jeffrey; Beck, Andrew F (2018) Adding a Vital Sign: Considering the Utility of Place-Based Measures in Health Care Settings. Hosp Pediatr :
Auger, Katherine A; Kahn, Robert S; Simmons, Jeffrey M et al. (2017) Using Address Information to Identify Hardships Reported by Families of Children Hospitalized With Asthma. Acad Pediatr 17:79-87
Real, Francis J; Michelson, Catherine D; Beck, Andrew F et al. (2017) Location, Location, Location: Teaching About Neighborhoods in Pediatrics. Acad Pediatr 17:228-232
Beck, Andrew F; Sandel, Megan T; Ryan, Patrick H et al. (2017) Mapping Neighborhood Health Geomarkers To Clinical Care Decisions To Promote Equity In Child Health. Health Aff (Millwood) 36:999-1005
Brokamp, Cole; Beck, Andrew F; Muglia, Louis et al. (2017) Combined sewer overflow events and childhood emergency department visits: A case-crossover study. Sci Total Environ 607-608:1180-1187
Johnson, Laurie H; Beck, Andrew F; Kahn, Robert S et al. (2017) Characteristics of Pediatric Emergency Revisits After an Asthma-Related Hospitalization. Ann Emerg Med 70:277-287
Beck, Andrew Finkel; Solan, Lauren G; Brunswick, Stephanie A et al. (2017) Socioeconomic status influences the toll paediatric hospitalisations take on families: a qualitative study. BMJ Qual Saf 26:304-311

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