Dallas County residents can now monitor data on pediatric asthma through an interactive dashboard, allowing the community to track how vulnerable specific ZIP codes and U.S. Census tracts are to risk factors for the chronic disease.
Parkland Health and Dallas County Health and Human Services partnered with Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation to launch the dashboard Thursday.
The Pediatric Asthma Surveillance System allows residents to view the details of geographic disparities. Most ZIP codes in southern Dallas are considered very high on the pediatric asthma vulnerability index while much of northern Dallas is low to very low, according to the dashboard.
Dallas’ northern and southern areas have wide disparities in health outcomes, according to the 2022 Dallas County Community Health Needs Assessment. Racial inequities in health are often a persistent shadow of the harmful effects of decades of historical housing discrimination.
Partners involved in bringing the dashboard to life hope to find root causes of asthma as they begin understanding the data and developing health interventions, programs and policies.
“Being able to drill down to neighborhoods and specific census tracts will provide public health leaders and agencies with data they need to address health disparities in the community and improve pediatric asthma for all,” said Steve Miff, PCCI’s president, in a statement.
Residents can view several data indicators on the dashboard that are used to provide a Pediatric Asthma Vulnerability Index for each ZIP code or census tract. These include socioeconomic conditions, demographic characteristics, medication use patterns, health services utilization and environmental conditions affecting asthma risk.
The system can also predict how probable asthma-related hospital visits are for people in a specific area within three months.
“There are many children who might not be aware that they have asthma,” said Dr. Cesar Termulo, pediatrician and associate medical director at Parkland. “They might solely be having a chronic cough or shortness of breath with exercise. Thus, it is important to find those pockets of Dallas County that might have a higher vulnerability to asthma attacks and raise awareness in the community to diagnose those children who have unrecognized asthma.”
Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children in the U.S. It is characterized by episodes of difficulty breathing made worse by allergens, air pollution and smoke.
One in 12 children in the U.S. has asthma, according to the 2022 Dallas County Community Health Needs Assessment. In North Texas, 17% of Parkland patients treated for asthma in 2021 were children.
The health needs assessment estimates that Dallas County’s population changes could lead to a 25% increase of asthma outpatient services volume between 2019 and 2029.
Have a kid with asthma?
Caregivers can sign up to participate in Parkland’s pediatric asthma text notification program that will help parents manage their child’s asthma by texting @asthma to 844-721-0839.
