Suburban Asthma Consortium (SAC), in Collaboration with the American Lung Association of Illinois, Completes the Multi-center Emergency Department Asthma Study; Asthma Ignores Geographic Boundaries, Study Proves It's a Growing Suburban Problem.

WHEATON, Ill. -- The Suburban Asthma Consortium (SAC), serving the six collar counties of the greater Chicagoland area, announces the completion of the retrospective Multi-center Emergency Department Asthma Study (MEDAS).

The MEDAS project reviewed data from a random sample of more than 1,800 asthmatic patients receiving emergency department (ED) treatment at 12 community hospitals from April 2004 through March 2005 in suburban Cook County and the surrounding counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will. The goal of the MEDAS project was to identify trends, shortcomings, and successes of asthma care in community hospital emergency departments.

SAC will present the MEDAS results at a dinner sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline and Sepracor on February 22, 2006, at The Stonegate in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Representatives of the participating community hospitals will attend this dinner which is also open to medical professionals and members of the press.

Highlights from the MEDAS project include:

--Less than one-third of patients seeking asthma-related ED care take preventative asthma medications known as inhaled steroids, and of this group, young adults (18-29) and Hispanics were nearly 30 percent less likely to be using these medications than the study population.

--Patients without private medical insurance are twice as likely to return to the ED for asthma-related illness within two weeks of their initial visit compared to patients with private medical insurance.

--African Americans account for three times more ED asthma visits than would be expected given their relative population in the participating communities.

--Among young adults in the study, 31 percent did not have medical insurance; regardless of ethnicity, patients in this demographic group are the least likely to be using inhaled steroids for asthma prevention and are more likely to return to the ED for asthma than other age groups.

--Over 60 percent of patients did not receive information on asthma management during the ED visit. Of the 40 percent that received information, only 10 percent were educated on all asthma management topics as defined by National Institute of Health (NIH) guidelines.

SAC has made a three-fold commitment to action based on the MEDAS results: (1) to research suburban asthma throughout a diverse suburban population; (2) to educate health care providers and patients about proper asthma management; and (3) to increase awareness that asthma is not just an urban issue, but a suburban one as well.

MEDAS was conducted as a blind investigation for SAC. Individual hospital records remained confidential through the analytical process used by Joel Cowen, Andrea Doughty, and their colleagues at the University of Illinois at Rockford. The analysts are not affiliated with the participating hospitals.

Please visit SAC's website at www.suburbanasthma.org to learn more about the organization, its mission, and how to get involved.