James+Gern+et+al.

This article is written by medical researchers, doctors specializing in allergies and infectious diseases, and those analyzing chronic illness of some kind. The authors work within the public health sector in some way and seem to be able to speak on the values and extracting useful information from surveys, giving some legitimacy to their analysis the study conducted. This paper analyzes a study conducted by the Inner City Asthma Consortium (ICAC) which is an initiative financially aiding the research of immune-mediated diseases supported by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. The Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma (URECA) focuses on the effect of inner-city environments on the number of incidents and severity of cases of childhood asthma. This article also addresses the possible genetic connections between cases of allergies and asthma in the parents and in their children. This suggests not only outside environmental effects, but also internal, emotional factors causing cases in asthma, as well as referring to related studies of immune development. The method employed was studying varying childhood cases through developmental stages ranging from infancy to seven years of age. This study followed children from prenatal stages to see if environmental exposures to the parent adversely affected the child’s allergic sensitization or caused lower respiratory infections leading to lung inflammation. Carefully monitored variables only allowed mothers living in urban census areas of 20% poverty with paternal history of asthma, hay fever, or eczema as affected participants. Then a comparison of genetic factors was done by comparing blood mononuclear cells taken from the umbilical cord of children without genetic paternal factors to identify the importance of genetic inheritance and the key environmental irritants. In addition to the umbilical cord blood samples collected to analyze these objectives, peripheral blood samples from the mother and child were collected to analyze plasma for antibodies. As well, several stages of surveys are filled out by the mother such as every 3 months assessing the child’s respiratory symptoms and environmental habitation factors, and pre-natal and annual stress-related questionnaires. Yearly blood samples analyzing body fat, skin testing, and pulmonary function tests are done with the child. Finally, data samples are taken at the home to measure dust and nicotine levels. Typical responses found outcomes of recurrent wheezing by age 3. The importance is to evaluate this as a possible risk factor for childhood asthma than can be developed by age 7. As well, the comparison to children without genetic predisposure lowered cytokine levels (prevalent in wheezing cases) by 50%, suggesting the passing of asthma factors genetically. Amongst the technical jargon, it seems the author has a full understanding of the process and the ability to make comparisons of its effectiveness through quotes such as “ Cryopreservation is not used because preliminary studies demonstrated significant effects on cytokine responses”(Gern, 7). The authors’ backgrounds in these types of research engenders an appreciation for the effectiveness of these surveys, and for the uniqueness of this particular study specifying how environmental exposures and lifestyles are affecting this particular financial class. The characteristics of these participants specifically reflect an urban condition, denoting an emphasis on economic and cultural trends within this study. A higher level of expertise is suggested by the authors’ thorough analysis of the data provided by this study. It is clear that an enlarged number of cases of asthma in children are directly affected by harmful environmental factors due to low socio-economic class conditions, as well as affected by genetic predisposition of the parents. This article recognizes the rigor conducted in this study due to its large, diverse sample size despite socio-economic challenges of participants (lack of transportation, telephones, etc.) and denotes the importance of using this study to compare to larger general population studies which do not always account for minority standards. Overall, the goal of this study and analysis is to encourage recognition of shared questions such as comparing asthmatic space environments, diverse experiences of asthma, and accounting for causes of asthma and analyzing the thoroughness of the types of research and analysis done.