National
Center for Farmworker Health
Monthly
Topics
Asthma
Asthma is a chronic disease that affects your airways. The
airways are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs.
If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways are swollen.
The inflammation makes the airways very sensitive, and they
tend to react strongly to things that you are allergic to
or find irritating. When the airways react, they get narrower,
and less air flows through to your lung tissue. This causes
symptoms like wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and trouble
breathing, especially at night and in the early morning. Asthma
cannot be cured, but most people with asthma can control it
so that they have few and infrequent symptoms and can live
active lives. Farmworkers often work and live in areas with
poor air quality which can increase the rate of asthma attacks.
The following is a list of research articles, education resources,
and organizations that focus on asthma.
Research on Asthma
• Variation in Asthma Beliefs and Practices
Among Mainland Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans, Mexicans,
and Guatemalans written by Lee M. Pachter and et al. in 2005.
Study that reports on community surveys of 160 representative
Latino adults in
Hartford, CT; Edinburg, TX; Guadalajara, Mexico; and in rural
Guatemala. A 142-item questionnaire covered asthma beliefs
and practices (e.g., causes, symptoms, and treatments). The
pattern of response is indicative of a shared belief system
among the four groups with regard to asthma. Within this shared
belief system though, there is systematic variation between
groups in causes, symptoms, and treatments for asthma. The
most widely recognized and shared beliefs concerned causes
of asthma. Notable differences were present between samples
in terms of differences in beliefs about symptoms and treatments
as well.
http://www.ncfh.org/item.php?sku=6186
• Injury And Asthma Among Youth Less Than 20
Years Of Age On Minority Farm Operations In The United States,
2000. Written by the Department of Health and Human Services
in 2005
This document provides previously unavailable youth demographic,
injury, and asthma estimates at the national level for youth
on Hispanic-operated farms in the U.S. This data represents
the initial step in developing research and prevention programs
to reduce the burden of injury and asthma on Hispanic farms
in the U.S.
http://www.ncfh.org/item.php?sku=6853
• Reducing Home Triggers For Asthma: The Latino
Community Health Worker Approach written by Molly A. Martin
and O. Hernandez in 2006.
This study assessed the ability of a community health worker
asthma intervention to change home asthma triggers. A total
of 56 children and 47 adults with asthma were enrolled in
the study. This intervention shows promise as a way to reduce
asthma triggers in lower-income Latino communities.
http://www.ncfh.org/item.php?sku=6829
• Health Effects of Air Pollution in the US-Mexico
Border Region
Of the environmental problems facing the U.S.-Mexican border
addressed by
researchers, none appear more complicated than the problem
of air quality.
The purpose of this paper is to examine and link both criteria
pollutants and
hazardous air pollutants with their associated health risk
in the U.S.-Mexican
border region. It also examines the problem of indoor air
quality at the U.S.-Mexican border.
http://www.ncfh.org/item.php?sku=6188
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