Helping Kids with Asthma

Uncontrolled asthma may account for more than ten million days of missed school each year. But while more than seven million children in America suffer from asthma, some families are able to manage asthma better than others. Daphne Koinis Mitchell, PhD, a psychologist and researcher at the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center, and her colleagues at the Childhood Asthma Research Program are learning more about who manages asthma better and why.

Koinis Mitchell collaborates with a team of researchers at the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center (BHCRC) including psychologists Elizabeth McQuaid, PhD, and Jack Nassau, PhD; Robert Klein, MD, allergist and vice-chairman of pediatrics at Hasbro Children’s Hospital; and child psychiatrist Gregory Fritz, MD, medical director of Bradley Hospital and BHCRC director. The team investigates several key issues related to pediatric asthma under several grants from the National Institutes of Health.

One of Koinis Mitchell’s current studies is titled “Resilience and Asthma in Children or REACH”. She hopes to discover what factors affect low-income children with asthma in urban environments and what processes may help protect them against poor asthma outcomes. The combined risk of asthma and living in poverty may increase functional impairment; however, there are urban children and families managing asthma effectively and Koinis Mitchell wants to know how and why they are successful. She is examining medical, cultural, family, and individual factors that contribute to asthma-related resilience. She hopes to learn more about why some children do well and how to replicate this environment for others.

The Childhood Asthma Research Program has been designated as one of four asthma centers in the United States to examine the factors that contribute to health disparities among children different ethnic groups through collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico (RIPRAC: Rhode Island Puerto Rico Asthma Center). Fritz is the principal investigator of this Center. His RIPRAC project uses state-of-the-art methodology to evaluate the diagnostic, psychosocial and health care mechanisms that contribute to asthma disparities in Latino and Anglo children in Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.

Koinis Mitchell also works with fellow researchers McQuaid and Klein on the Hasbro Children’s Hospital Community Asthma Program. On Tuesdays, the staff of the Community Asthma Program, under the directorship of Klein and McQuaid, offers the Draw a Breath education program for families that is sponsored by CVS/Pharmacy. On Thursdays, this education is provided in the Providence area schools to educate students and their families. Part of the Asthma and Allergy Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, both programs are open to the public.

The ultimate goal of the research projects and educational programs is to identify factors that may help or hinder asthma management, help children and families learn how to manage asthma optimally, and dispel many common myths about asthma. Koinis Mitchell encourages all the children and families she works to participate in research to further understanding about pediatric asthma and attend the asthma educational program to learn more about how to manage asthma effectively.

For more information on Koinis Mitchell’s and her colleagues' research or on the Community Asthma Program at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, please call 1-800-GO-LUNGS.

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