BREATHING SPACE
Respiratory Disease Newsletter
A quarterly newsletter to provide health professionals, school nurses, and community members with current research, information, and resources on respiratory disease
Volume 10, Number 2
Welcome Kelly!
Kelly A. Raatz has returned to
the MDH as the asthma
program coordinator. Kelly
worked on the CDC Asthma
Planning Grant and the
Strategic Plan for Addressing
Asthma from 2000-2003.
Having spent 10 years with
MDH, Kelly worked 7 of those
years with the Environmental
Health Division focusing on
residential air quality issues and
education.
What’s Inside?
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2012 Asthma in
Minnesota Report
Key Findings in Asthma Report
Training and Learning
Opportunities
News and Resources
June 2012
Release of New 2012 Asthma Report
The Minnesota Department of Health Asthma
Program is pleased to announce the release of the
2012 Asthma in Minnesota Epidemiology Report
This report includes data on asthma prevalence,
asthma-related health care utilization, quality of life
and mortality that can be used to evaluate the impact
of future public health efforts, plan education and
intervention programs, and develop policies that are
necessary for preventing and controlling asthma in the
future. When possible, the data in this report are organized around the 2007 Expert Panel Report 3: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma.
New in this report are data on quality of care for asthma using the recently
developed optimal asthma care measure http://www.mncm.org/site/ The
report also includes data on asthma prevalence, tobacco use and second-hand
smoke exposures from the Minnesota Youth Tobacco and Asthma Survey,
county-specific rates of asthma-related emergency department visits and
hospitalizations, and updates on Minnesota's progress toward meeting Healthy
People goals.
The report can be found on the MDH Asthma Program website at:
http://www.health.state.mn.us/asthma/report2012.html
Key Findings from the Asthma Report:
Asthma prevalence:
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7.0% or 1 in 14 Minnesota children ages 0-17 currently have asthma. That translates to an
estimated 90,000 children.
7.6% or 1 in 13 Minnesota adults age 18 and older report that they currently have asthma. That
translates to an estimated 302,000 adults.
12.4% or 1 in 8 Minnesota youth (grades 6-12) currently have asthma.
Asthma prevalence in Minnesota is lower than the national average and is not currently increasing.
American Indian and African/African American students in grades 6, 9 and 12 are more likely than other students to
have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lives.
1 in 10 Minnesota youth report asthma-like symptoms but do not have a provider diagnosis of asthma.
“Asthma Report Key Findings ” continued on Page 2
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Asthma control:
Work-related asthma:
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16% of adults with asthma experienced sleep disruptions
due to asthma on 3 or more nights in the past month.
48% of adults with asthma experienced an asthma attack
in the past year.
17% of adults with asthma report that their activities
were limited by asthma on one or more days in the past
year.
59% of youth with current asthma have asthma that is
not controlled.
24% of child (ages 5-17) and 16% of adult (ages 18-50)
asthma patients met the Minnesota Community Measurement criteria for optimal asthma care in 2010.
Asthma management:
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47% of youth with asthma report that they have an
asthma action plan, a key tool in asthma management.
37% of adults with asthma report that they have ever
received an asthma action plan.
57% of adults with asthma report having had a flu shot in
the past year.
Self-management education:
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67% of adults with asthma report having been taught
how to recognize early signs of an asthma attack.
39% of adults with asthma report having been taught
how to monitor peak flow.
Asthma emergency department visits:
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Adults with asthma are just as likely as adults without
asthma to smoke cigarettes.
Youth (grades 6-12) with current asthma are just as likely
as their peers who never had asthma to smoke cigarettes.
Youth with current asthma are more likely than those
without asthma to report being exposed to secondhand
smoke in the past week (53% vs. 42%).
Asthma among Minnesota public health care program
enrollees:
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There were more than 22,000 emergency department
(ED) visits for asthma in 2010.
Rates of asthma ED visits have increased since 2005.
Rates of asthma ED visits are 70% higher among children
living in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area
than among children living in Greater Minnesota.
Asthma mortality:
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After a dramatic decline through the mid-2000s, the
statewide asthma mortality rate increased between 2008
and 2010.
In 2010, there were 73 deaths due to asthma among
Minnesota residents.
Asthma Hospitalizations
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Risk factors associated with asthma:
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31% of adults with asthma report that their asthma was
made worse by exposures to chemicals, smoke, fumes or
dust in the workplace.
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There were more than 3,500 asthma hospitalizations in
2010.
Rates of asthma hospitalizations have steadily declined
since 2000.
Rates of asthma hospitalizations are 50% higher among
children living in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area than among children living in Greater
Minnesota.
Rates of asthma hospitalizations are 30% higher among
adults living in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area than among adults living in Greater Minnesota.
Asthma Hospitalization Rates by Region and Age,
Minnesota, 2000-2010
Asthma prevalence is higher among enrollees in Medical
Assistance than Minnesota Care.
In Medical Assistance, asthma prevalence is highest
among African/African American enrollees; in Minnesota
Care, asthma prevalence is highest among American
Indian enrollees.
Asthma prevalence is higher among enrollees living
in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area
than among those living in Greater Minnesota.
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TRAINING & LEARNING OPPORTUNTIES
School Nursing: An Orientation
Save the Date
August 14 & 15, 2012
Clean & Healthy Tribal
Casinos Workshop
Minnesota Department of Education
Conference Center A, CC 13-14
1500 Highway 36 West
Roseville, MN
Improving Indoor Air Quality
Through the Lens of Culture,
Science, and Technology
September 18 & 19, 2012
Grand Portage Lodge & Casino
This two-day orientation is for Licensed School Nurses
and provides a framework for practice for baccalaureateprepared nurses who are new to the school nurse role.
Topics cover required and essential components of
school health services in Minnesota elementary and
secondary schools.
Registration Fee:
Cost: $115 (Continuing Education: 15 Hours)
Registration Deadline: August 6, 2012
For more information and to register go to :
http://www.minnesotaschoolnurses.org/events.html
Sponsored by:
School Nurse Organization of MN (SNOM)
Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)
Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)
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Indoor Air Testing
Casino Building Performance
Cost Effective Solutions
HVAC Modifications for reducing exposure to
tobacco smoke
 Understanding health effects—science and the
environment
 Green Cleaning
 Tribal tobacco policies and stakeholder
perspectives
Sponsored by:
Grand Portage Chippewa
Bois Forte Band of Chippewa
USA EPA
Registration is FREE
To pre-register, contact
Tonya Connor
[email protected]
“New” Smoke-free Housing Toolkit
Smoke-Free Housing Toolkits are provided by the U.S
Department of Housing and Urban Development in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the
American Lung Association, and the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. The Toolkits contain existing educational “how to” and resources brochures,
pamphlets and other information designed to assist
owners/management agents and residents of public and
assisted multi-housing who want safer and healthier
homes.
For more information on the owner’s toolkit and the residents’ kit go to: http://www.hud.gov
Artwork: “Nookomiis,” William P. Wilson, 2011
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NEWS & RESOURCES
Smoking During Pregnancy may Cause
Severe Asthma for Baby when in His or Her Teens
African-American and Latino children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are more likely to experience acute asthma
symptoms in their teens than those whose mothers did not smoke, according to a new study led by a research team at the
University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF).
In an analysis of nearly 2,500 Latino and African-American children with asthma, the researchers found that children between age 8 and 17 with acute asthma symptoms were far more likely to have had mothers who smoked during pregnancy, even when the team controlled for elements such as education, socioeconomic level and childhood exposure to tobacco smoke.
“If women smoked while pregnant, their children had about a 50 percent increase in uncontrolled asthma, even when we controlled for current tobacco exposure,” said Sam S. Oh, PhD,
MPH, a postdoctoral scholar in epidemiology at the UCSF Center for Tobacco Research and Education. “Kids who are 17 years old still show the effects of something they were exposed to during the first nine months of life.”
The findings are significant in light of the greater proportion of women from ethnic minorities
who smoke throughout their pregnancies, the researchers said, as well as the higher rates of
asthma within both of those communities than in the overall U.S. population.
The results will appear in an upcoming issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and can be found at:
http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(12)00522-2/fulltext
“New” Tobacco Cessation Website
Association of Clinicians for the Underserved
Tobacco Free
http://www.clinicans.org/tobaccofree/.
Check out the new ACU’s Tobacco Free web portal
that offers access to resources and tools to help
patients quit smoking. It is designed in mind for
practitioners who work with the underserved.
Some of the key content areas are:
QUITPLAN Phone Coaching
Call 1-888-354-PLAN (7526)
Everyone in Minnesota has access to free
phone coaching to quit tobacco: either
through their health plan or through
QUITPLAN Services. If you are uninsured or
your health plan doesn’t cover phone
coaching, you can use QUITPLAN Services.
Tobacco and Underserved Populations
Standards of Care
Tools
Research
Policy and Advocacy
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Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Division
Chronic Disease and Environmental Epidemiology
85 East 7th Place
PO Box 64882
St. Paul, MN 55164-0882
BREATHING SPACE
For more information, or to request this material in another format call the Minnesota Asthma
Program at:
651-201-5909
MN Relay Service TDD/TTY
651-201-5797.
To receive this newsletter
electronically, go to:
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/
hpcd/cdee/asthma/Newsletter.html.
Link to -Subscribe to
Breathing Space.
Editor
BREATHING SPACE, a quarterly respiratory disease newsletter, is produced by the
Minnesota Department of Health Asthma Program. The purpose of this newsletter
is to provide health professionals, school nurses, and community members with
current research, information, and resources on respiratory disease.
This newsletter is supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement #1U59EH000498
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely
the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views
of the CDC.
Questions about lung health?
Call 1-800-548-8252
American Lung Association Call Center
MDH Asthma Staff Contact Information:
Asthma Program Telephone Number: 651-201-5909
Toll Free Number: 1-877-925-4189
Asthma Web Site: http://www.health.state.mn.us/asthma/.
Janet Keysser, MA, MPH
Production
Janis Smith, OAS, Sr.
Commissioner of Health
Edward Ehlinger, MD, MSPH
Wendy Brunner, 651-201-5895, email: [email protected]
Janet Keysser, 651-201-5691, email: [email protected]
Kathleen Norlien, 651-201-4613, email: [email protected]
Kelly Raatz, 651-201-5899, email: [email protected]
Susan Ross, 651-201-5629, email: [email protected]
Janis Smith, 651-201-5909, email: [email protected]
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