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LIFE

UofL study to tackle asthma in older adults

Darla Carter
@PrimeDarla

Nearly 200 people are being recruited for a University of Louisville study that will help shed light on the impact of asthma on the 60-and-older crowd.

The university has announced a $2.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to conduct a five-year study, examining asthma triggers in older adults.

"We know a great deal about asthma in children, but, really, not much has been done about asthma in the elderly," said Barbara Polivka, a Shirley B. Powers Endowed Chair in Nursing at UofL. "We have an aging population and we know that asthma is increasing in prevalence, and so the more we can find out about asthma, the more we can actually individualize the treatment for elderly people."

The chronic disease can have a significant impact on a person's quality of life, affecting older adults' "ability to exercise, to be outdoors, to move around" and "to meet their responsibilities in their homes," Polivka said. It also "may impact their ability to actually hold down a job."

Last year, Louisville ranked No. 16 on a list of Asthma Capitals, the country's so-called "most challenging places to live with asthma." The ranking by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America includes the 100 largest U.S. metro areas.

The humid Ohio River Valley has an abundance of mold spores and pollution that can affect asthmatics, said Dr. Rodney Folz, the study's co-principal investigator with Polivka.

"Ozone, in particular, can be bad for an elderly asthmatic," said Folz, a Cleveland professor formerly with U of L.

Other factors that can make asthma control challenging for seniors include cognitive decline, medications that can affect thinking, and dexterity issues. When attempting to use inhaled medication, "an older patient can have trouble with timing and coordinating that most of us would just take for granted," said Folz, chief of the pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine division at Case Western Reserve University.

To recruit 190 patients for the new study, U of L will be reaching out to the public in various places where older people congregate, from senior centers to beauty and barbershops, Polivka said.

The study will be conducted by an interdisciplinary team that will gather data and other information, such as health and occupational history and tobacco usage, on the volunteers, who must be age 60 and older, non-smoking for at least five years, and have no other lung disease but asthma.

"We are going to be testing their lungs," Polivka said. "We'll be doing skin testing to see if they're allergic to any particular airborne allergen. We'll be doing sputum analysis. We'll be doing some blood testing. We will have them fill out a number of questionnaires."

Also, "the first couple of years, we will be carefully characterizing the type of asthma that a person has," Folz said, "and then once we do that, we'll be following them up over the next 18 months or so, looking at the home environment" and other things, such as medications.

As part of the home assessment, researchers will be measuring chemical emissions from outdoor and indoor sources that affect some asthmatics.

"We'll be looking at volatile organic compounds, primarily, which are VOCs, and those things are found in air fresheners, paints, those kinds of household products," Polivka said. Researchers also will be looking for moisture in residences and "signs of critters we don't want in their homes that could have some allergens."

People's reactions to substances vary depending on the type of asthma, Folz said. "People with allergic asthma may be much more sensitive to high levels of VOCs ... than someone who has a different type of asthma so we'll be looking at that very carefully."

Reporter Darla Carter can be reached at (502) 582-7068, dcarter@courier-journal.com and on Twitter @PrimeDarla.

LEARN MORE

For more information on the study or to see if you qualify to participate, contact Susan Rames at (502) 852-2273, or email asthma@louisville.edu. Participants can receive up to up to $200 in gift cards and other perks.

WHAT IS ASTHMA?

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects the airways in the lungs. During an asthma attack, airways become inflamed, making breathing difficult. Attacks range from mild to life threatening.

TRIGGERS

Things that can trigger an asthma attack include:

•Allergens, such as pollen, mold, animal dander and dust mites.

•Exercise.

•Occupational hazards.

•Tobacco smoke.

•Air pollution.

•Airway infections.

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.