Asthma and Allergy Screening in Schools Closer to Reality

Asthma and allergy screening in schools moves closer to reality in pilot projects

School children are screened for vision problems and hearing disorders. Why can't they be screened in school for asthma and allergies?

They can, according to four articles in the May 2003 issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. The articles report on four pilot school-based screening programs in Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas and Rochester, Minn.

"The four pilot projects demonstrated that allergy and asthma screening can be accomplished simply and economically in schools," said Robert Miles, M.D., ACAAI past-president who chaired a coordinating committee for the four pilot projects. "Each of the four projects took a somewhat different approach, and our job now is to combine the best elements from the four projects to develop a composite model."

The four projects were selected by the ACAAI for funding from among 67 research proposals. Each demonstrated a somewhat different approach within varying demographic populations of students, and each was awarded a $100,000 grant for the pilot study.

Consensus

In an editorial accompanying the four articles, Dr. Miles presented conclusions supported by the four studies:

1. A composite model for a school-based allergy and asthma screening program can be developed, based on the results of the four pilot projects.

2. The composite screening instrument should be a student questionnaire, accompanied by a parallel alternative parent/guardian questionnaire.

3. The success of school-based screening will depend on "buy in" by stakeholder groups such as school nurses, school administrators, parent-teacher organizations, pediatricians, and state and county health departments.

As a follow up to the pilot projects, the four sites currently are collaborating on the validation of a composite screening instrument and protocol. Those results will be reported later this year.

Pilot Project Sites

The four pilot projects and their directors were:

-- Chicago -- La Rabida Children's Hospital and Research Center, Raoul Wolf, M.D.

-- Cleveland -- Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Susan Redline, M.D., M.P.H.

-- Dallas -- Dallas Asthma Consortium, Rebecca Gruchalla, M.D., Ph.D.

-- Rochester -- Olmsted County Asthma Action Coalition, Barbara Yawn, M.D., M.Sc.

The four pilot studies were an outgrowth of an ACAAI-called meeting of representatives of 15 national health- and school-related associations and five government agencies. Those representatives defined the problems, and six pharmaceutical companies have provided unrestricted educational grants to help fund the effort: Aventis, Dey, GlaxoSmithKline, Norvartis/Genetech, Inc., Pfizer US Pharmaceutical Group and UCB Pharma, and Schering/Key.