Asthma Outline

Asthma is a serious problem nationwide. It is also a significant problem in the state of Massachusetts, especially in communities in Boston. However, according to Harvard School of Public Health and NIEHS Center for Environmental Health, Roxbury and North Dorchester are highly noticeable hotspots (Backus, Terrell, Wool, & Straubel, 2012, p. 23). For the purpose of this paper, the main focus will be on asthma cases in

Asthma is a long-term lung disease. Those with asthma have sensitive airways in their lungs which triggers a flare up. When this flare up happens the muscle around the airways squeeze tight and the airways swell, become narrows and produce more mucus. (Anon., 2016) All these things make it harder for a person to breathe. Asthma effects the human body’s respiratory system. Asthma causes a spasm and constriction of the bronchial passages and the swelling and the inflammation of the mucous lining. The body responds by defence cells from the immune system, which causes the airways to swell and the muscles surrounding the airways to contract. Which is what cuts off the airflow. While a person is in asthma attack, the asthmatic cannot breathe which

4) The risk factor increases if more than one family member suffers from the disease.

To better understand the impact of asthma, a brief overview of the causes (aetiology) and disease progression (pathophysiology) must be shown. As common as asthma is, not much is known about its aetiology, according to findings presented by Subbaroa, Mandhane and Sears (2009, pg. 181-187) in a review from the Canadian

risk factors for disease and injury, socioeconomic status, access to health care use due to

Asthma is a respiratory disease that many people deal with every single day. “According to World Health Organization, approximately 180,000 people die from asthma each year.” (Jardins and Burton 187) Most people never think of asthma as a life threatening disease, but it can be crucial. As the number of people with asthma increases, the more likely you are to come in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with this disease. Asthma is a severe breathing problem that has many complications that is dealt with daily like shortness of breath, chronic cough, tightness of the chest and shortness of breath, my main focus is childhood asthma, allergic asthma, and medication to treat asthma.

• An increase in chronic conditions such as circulatory, respiratory diseases, cancers and in the economically and care dependent populations is therefore likely.

At various stages of asthma, preventative measures can be used to control or alleviate the symptoms associated with this disease. Education is an important component to every intervention phase, particularly in primary prevention, because the patient is encouraged to be proactive with their personal health in order to avoid and control the triggers. Prescribed medication, such as an inhaler, and an action plan that is individualized to the specific care of a particular patient is essential in the secondary prevention phase. Finally, in the tertiary prevention phase, the care is directed not only at the common asthmatic symptoms and triggers but also at the complications that result from long-term suffering of this disease. This paper focuses on environmental factors which trigger asthma, with specific focus on children from infancy to 16 years of age in low-income housing, and how the appropriate measure can minimize the triggers and symptoms. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the example we will use.

About 10% of American children have asthma (Thakur et al., 2013). It is vital to understand what determinants cause childhood asthma to understand even with a low percentage, why it is still present. According to Williams et al., asthma is a health outcome which is a major impact on American youth (Williams et al., 2009). This health outcome not only impacts them throughout the years of being a child, but it has the potential of creating more serious health problems in the future. And without knowing what the causes are, it increases the rate asthma among children and prevents treatments from being implemented. It needs to be addressed by using results from prior studies in order to show how much of a problem childhood asthma is but also in finding and understanding the other underlying

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Asthma is a chronic lung disease that affects the airways, which is comprised of tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs. People who experience difficulties breathing have inflamed airways. The inflammation causes the tubes to swell and become sensitive, especially when inhaling strong substances. As a result, the airways tighten and the muscles around the tubes become swollen and narrower. In addition, cells in the airways might produce more mucus. This sticky and thick mucus makes it even more difficult for air to pass into the lungs.

Because of the fact of how ambiguous of a disease asthma is, it makes it even more difficult to diagnose it. As previously talked about, symptoms are different with everybody and the causes to those symptoms are different, so because of that doctors find it hard to

Throughout the years knowledge about asthma has grown, as well as treating it effectively. Over 300 million people are said to be victims of this disease with another 100 million being estimated by 2025 globally (Currie and Baker, 2012). In the United Kingdom, asthma is increasingly becoming one of the leading disease affecting individual of different age, ethnicity, race and gender. British Lung Foundation (2011) stated that it is more common at childhood stage and can also occur at a later age. According to Asthma UK (2014) asthma in men is less prevalence than it is in women and children troubled more with asthma than adults. Recent data in the UK shows that in children and occupational asthma in adult is on the rise with an estimate

Childhood asthma impacts scores of youngsters and their families. In fact, the bulk of kids develop respiratory illness before the age of

                  Asthma is a disease which affects the airways of the lungs, causing a kind of wheezing whenever an individual breathes, coughing, and you would run out of breathe a lot quicker than an individual without asthma. The

Asthma is a chronic airway disease that can be difficult to manage, resulting in poor outcomes and high costs (Kuhn et al., 2015). It is characterized by episodes of expiratory airflow obstruction, which occurs in response to multiple stimuli or triggers. Asthma is a lifelong disease, and symptoms include wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. Attacks can be mild, moderate, severe, or even life threatening and limit a person’s way of life (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2011). There is no known cure for asthma, but symptoms can be controlled by avoiding the triggers and taking prescribed medicines that prevent or minimize symptoms.