Childhood asthma is one of the most common chronic pediatric diseases and poses a serious public health problem. The prevalence of the disease in the city of Detroit if particularly high, reflecting the trends found elsewhere among urban populations and communities of color. The Michigan Center for the Environment and Children's Health will investigate environmental, pathophysiological, and clinical mechanisms of pediatric asthma which will translate into risk assessment and comprehensive neighborhood and household interventions. Three research cores, Asthma Intervention (Core 1), Asthma Exposure (Core 2) and Asthma Chemokines (Core 3), supported by two Facility Cores (Biostatistics and Exposure Assessment) and two new Center Scientists, will engage in coordinated interdisciplinary research aimed at: 1. increasing knowledge and behavior to reduce environmental hazards in households and neighborhoods, thereby improving asthma-related health status, 2) examination of the effects of daily and seasonal fluctuations in indoor and outdoor ambient air quality on pulmonary function and severity of asthma symptoms, and 3) determination of the effects of allergen-induced local, excessive production of chemokines on redox status and innervation of the bronchial tress. The Center is a partnership between the University of Michigan, community-based organizations and health care institutions in Detroit and focuses on jointly identified problems, research strategies and interventions design. The activities of the proposed Center are predicted on the bi-directional flow of interventions design. The activities of the proposed Center are predicted on the bi-directional flow of information from the basic research cores to the community-based intervention core and vice versa. It is anticipated that the Michigan Center for the Environment and Children's Health will fill existing gaps in knowledge of the relationships between environmental factors and clinico-pathophysiological aspects of pediatric asthma, and will provide a sound scientific and culturally sensitive framework for conducting effective prevention intervention research.
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