We don’t mean to brag, but we’re a pretty big deal when it comes to allergies.
Last year, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America named Louisville, with a full 100-point score, Number One on its list of spring allergy capitals and the “Most Challenging Place to Live with Spring Allergies.”
For 2015, the organization places Louisville at Number Two on the list, giving Jackson, Mississippi the winning slot. Your nose, though, probably won’t be able to tell the difference.
The American Lung Association today released State of the Air report data, showing slight improvement in Jefferson County air quality overall, but giving the county a “B” for particle pollution grade and an “F” for ozone (smog) grade (see the summary for more information on these pollutants).
All of this bad news makes Louisville a great place to study the effects of environmental factors on allergies and asthma, and perhaps create new ways to make improvements in treatments and conditions for citizens.
For the past few years, Propeller Health, Louisville Metro government and a number of private partners have conducted a program in which sensors were placed in inhalers in order to track where and when users were experiencing breathing difficulty. The initial collection of data from a 13-month period was mapped and shared with officials and health professionals as open data.
That program has expanded to now include Louisville Metro Public Health, the Community Foundation of Louisville and other organizations to continue collecting data and then use it to create a “model of collective action to reduce the burden of respiratory disease in Jefferson County.”
The coalition, AIR Louisville, which was cited in a recent White House fact sheet on health programs across the country, is currently accepting inquiries from Louisville residents interested in receiving a free sensor for use with their asthma inhalers.
And a five-year University of Louisville study will focus on people age 60 or older living with asthma. The University of Louisville School of Nursing’s Dr. Barbara Polvika says this population is not often studied by asthma researchers, but “it’s an increasing problem with the increasing age of the population and also the environmental triggers and potential issues in the environment may cause issues with asthma,” in an article on WKMS. The prevalence of asthma is actually highest among the 55-64 age group in Kentucky, according to a statistic from the Kentucky Asthma Surveillance Report.
The study seeks to include 190 participants inside the Louisville Metro area.
Look on the bright side: At least our suffering may lead to better treatments and relief for folks in Louisville and across the U.S.
Photo: Shutterstock/Nicoleta Ionescu
