Community Action Against Asthma (CAAA)

Publications

This partnership is involved in intervention and epidemiological research focusing on environmental triggers of asthma. The overall aims of CAAA are: to examine how the effects of air quality interact with social and environmental factors, and childhood asthma; to test the effectiveness of different interventions aimed at reducing the impact of environmental triggers on childhood asthma; and to consider how these findings may be used to design individual, community and policy interventions to reduce asthma exacerbation.

African American, Hispanic and Arab American community members from across Detroit, with a focus on east and southwest Detroit and Dearborn, MI 

• Arab American Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS)
• Community Activists
• Community Health and Social Service Center (CHASS)
• Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation (DHDC)
• Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice
• Friends of Parkside
• Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision
• Warren-Conner Development Coalition
• Institute for Population Health
• UM School of Public Health, UM School of Medicine. 

• Asthma, Inflection, RoadWays, And Youth Study (AIRWAYS) 2009-2014 Closely related to the NEXUS study, this project looks at whether exposure to highways and to infections interact to affect the health of children with asthma, and evaluates the biologic mechanisms by which this interaction may occur.
• Near-road EXposure and Urban cohort Study (Nexus) 2009-2013 This is a collaborative project withthe EPA that examines the impact of vehicle emission on near-road air quality, the types and severity of respiratory outcomes in children with asthma that are associated with near-road exposures to air pollutants, and whether air pollution affects the frequency and severity of common colds among children with asthma.
• Household Air Filter and Air Conditioner Intervention 2007-2013  The aim of this project is to conduct a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of air filters alone and when combined with air conditioners to reduce indoor particulate matter (PM) and improve health status of children with asthma above and beyond a standard community health worker home visit intervention.
• Assessment of Vehicular Exhaust Exposure and its Health Effects 2007-2013 This study aims to characterize the relationship between exposures to vehicular exhaust emissions, especially from diesel trucks, in the ambient environment and aggravation of childhood asthma.