The Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center has been working in collaboration with a tribe in the Southwest on an asthma and air quality project for the past few years. Recently in a preliminary data review, SWEHSC and the tribe found the childhood asthma rate in the community to be upwards of twenty- four percent. In order to achieve a more accurate rate of childhood asthma the project will be implementing a study using the ISAAC, International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Children. The ISAAC has been used successfully with the Maori in New Zealand and is adaptable to be relevant to the community with which the project is in collaboration with.
Cheyenne Grabiec, a program coordinator with SWEHSC’s Community Engagement Core, is the lead on this collaborative project. Cheyenne has two summers of experience with asthma research through the Summer Research Enhancement Program at Dine College where he interned with the Community Asthma Program. On this project, Cheyenne gained experience conducting community interviews and quantitative and qualitative data analysis skills. He will be transferring the skills he gained with the Community Asthma Program to the ISAAC study.