Maureen Lichtveld and Hannah Covert are with the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. Jane El-Dahr is with the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Tulane University. L. Faye Grimsley is with the Department of Public Health Sciences, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans. Richard Cohn is an independent consultant in Chapel Hill, NC. Claire Hayes Watson and Eleanor Thornton are with Visionary Consulting Partners LLC, Fairfax, VA. Suzanne Kennedy is with the Children's Research Institute, Department of Pediatrics, NC Children's Hospital, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Am J Public Health. 2020 Oct;110(10):1485-1489. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.305759. Epub 2020 Aug 20.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina resulted in long-term flooding of 80% of New Orleans, Louisiana. Mold-infested homes gave rise to concerns about increased childhood asthma. To address these concerns, a diverse community-academic partnership used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to implement the Head-off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana (HEAL) study in 2007.The study examined the relationship between post-Katrina mold and other environmental exposures and asthma morbidity, while testing an asthma counselor (AC) intervention. Both the AC intervention and the CBPR approach were effectively implemented in the postdisaster setting. However, homes had lower levels of mold and other allergens than expected, possibly because of the timing of environmental sampling. Also, HEAL illustrated the vulnerability of the study community, especially to the interconnected threats of health disparities, environmental health stressors, and disasters.We examine the implications of these threats for public health science, policy, and practice, not only through the lens of Hurricane Katrina but also for future disasters faced by communities in the Gulf Coast and nationally.
2005 年，卡特里娜飓风导致路易斯安那州新奥尔良市 80%的地区长期被洪水淹没。受霉菌污染的房屋引发了人们对儿童哮喘发病率增加的担忧。为了解决这些担忧，一个多元化的社区学术伙伴关系利用社区参与式研究（CBPR）方法，于 2007 年实施了路易斯安那州预防环境性哮喘（HEAL）研究。该研究考察了卡特里娜飓风后霉菌和其他环境暴露与哮喘发病率之间的关系，同时测试了哮喘顾问（AC）干预措施。AC 干预和 CBPR 方法在灾后环境中都得到了有效实施。然而，与预期相比，房屋中的霉菌和其他过敏原水平较低，这可能是由于环境采样的时间。此外，HEAL 还说明了研究社区的脆弱性，尤其是在健康差异、环境健康压力源和灾害相互关联的威胁下。我们不仅通过卡特里娜飓风的视角，而且还通过墨西哥湾沿岸和全国社区未来面临的灾害视角，来审视这些威胁对公共卫生科学、政策和实践的影响。
