Arkansas Children’s main campus in Little Rock (Courtesy of Arkansas Children’s Hospital)
An Arkansas physician received a $662,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study why children in the state suffer more from asthma than their peers in other states, the Arkansas Children’s Hospital announced in a Monday press release.
Dr. Akilah Jefferson of the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute will spend the next four years leading a team of researchers to “explore factors like a child’s home environment, access to healthcare and the quality of care they receive,” the release states.
One in four Arkansas children has asthma, a significantly higher percentage than the U.S. average of 6.5%, according to 2021 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“A child’s ZIP code should have nothing to do with how easy it is for them to breathe,” Jefferson said in the release. “…Our goal is to ensure that every child, regardless of where they live, has the chance to breathe easy and thrive.”
Arkansas children are more likely to have asthma and its accompanying complications if they live in rural areas and come from low-income or minority backgrounds.
Jefferson’s research goal is to find ways to improve children’s asthma outcomes in rural areas, which “could include providing better education about asthma management, increasing access to healthcare, or addressing environmental factors that can trigger asthma attacks,” the release states.
Jefferson treats children with allergies and immune system conditions at Arkansas Children’s in both Little Rock and Springdale. She is also an assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ College of Medicine.
Dr. Tamara Perry, the Allergy and Immunology chief at Arkansas Children’s and a professor of Pediatrics at the UAMS College of Medicine, will be Jefferson’s mentor during her research, the release states.
The Arkansas Children’s Research Institute received a $3-million, 5-year grant in 2018 to create a mobile help app to help adolescent asthma sufferers improve health outcomes.
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