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Recommendations
Recommendations for the State of Connecticut
Environment and Human
Health, Inc. has four recommendations for the State of Connecticut
as a result of this asthma study. They are:
- The state should establish a system for tracking the prevalence
of asthma in Connecticut.
- The legislature should provide funding for this tracking system
so that it may be put in place and not become an unfunded mandate.
- The state should investigate what factors are contributing to the
differences in the prevalence rates of asthma among the different
socioeconomic groups in Connecticut.
- The state should target resources to those areas in the state that
are shown to be the most heavily impacted.
Recommended Model For A Tracking System
- Data should be collected using methods similar to those used in
this study. The reasoning behind this is that, for most reportable
diseases in Connecticut, it is laboratories that provide the data.
Since asthma is not diagnosed by laboratory tests, a different system
of tracking needs to be developed. Because school nurses can readily
provide asthma prevalence data for school-age children, it makes
sense to use them as the bases for the asthma tracking. Collectively,
school nurses can provide statewide student asthma data.
- Although a school-based system will not include data regarding
the prevalence of asthma among the adult population, it will highlight
changes in the prevalence of asthma among school age children. Data
regarding trends in the prevalence of asthma among school age children
will give the state an indication of the overall asthma trends and
will also provide the state with sufficient information to make decisions
regarding budget and resource allocation.
- School-based asthma data collected by school nurses should be submitted
to the: (a) local board of education, (b) local health department,
(c) State Department of Education, and (d) State Department of Public
Health. These reports should be submitted annually, preferably by
the end of April.
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