Pediatric Asthma Case Study

Step 1: Gather Information and Identify Preliminary Issues The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute defines asthma as being a chronic disease centered in the lungs of the individual that harms by agitating and contracting the airways leading to the lungs in that person (The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 2014). Being a chronic disease, that is, persisting for a long periods of times which makes asthma an impediment disease to fully cure. Well-known to affect children the most, asthma tends to weigh as a heavy burden for hospitalizations, emergency room visits, school missed days, limitations on activities, and in some cases even deaths. Between the years 1980 to 1994, the prevalence of asthma in children aged 5 to 14 years
Children living in the Southern states of the U.S. tend to have a higher percentage of pediatric asthma than those living in the north-west of the States. In addition, children who live in metropolitan areas have higher prevalence risk of asthma than those living in urban or rural settings. This is true because individuals who make up ethnic and racial minorities tend to live high-dense metro areas which affects health, income, and frequency of asthma. Minorities children such as African Americans, Puerto Ricans, and American Indians are more evident to suffer from pediatric asthma. The prevalence rate of asthma in African Americans is a whopping 12.8 percent compared to a 7.9 percent for White children (Changing pO_2licy: The Elements for Improving Childhood Asthma Outcomes, 2010). In light of the situation presented, the President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children enjoys both strengths and weaknesses in highlights of fighting asthma. A few strengths that task force enjoys are the established subcommittees where each considers policy reports on asthma. Another is the passing of the Patient protection and Affordable Care Act resulting in expanding the insurance coverage, reorganizing health market, and established programs to pilot the performance of the health system regarding asthma. On the other hand, the Task Force suffers from weaknesses in enforcing implantation of policies, the lofty costs of treating asthma, insufficient access to case management, and absence of strategy to organize research. Nonetheless, the President's Task force abides to its goals of "reducing barriers to the implementation of guidelines, improve comprehensive asthma care to despaired low socio-economic communities, develop capacity in identifying asthma inequality, and advance