The primary object of this study is to determine the efficacy of a targeted environmental intervention among overweight inner city children as compared to normal weight inner city children with asthma.
Specific Aim #1: To determine if overweight inner-city children, compared to lean inner-city children, have greater improvement in asthma with an air purifier intervention aimed at reducing indoor PM.
Hypothesis 1: An intervention using HEPA filter air purifiers in the homes of inner-city children with asthma will be associated with greater respiratory improvement in overweight children than in normal weight children.
Specific Aim #2a: To investigate mediators of susceptibility among overweight versus normal weight children with asthma.
Hypothesis #2. Candidate mediators, including increases in a) tidal volume and thereby increases in doses of inhaled particles, b) inflammatory and oxidative stress responses, c) corticosteroid resistance, and d) sleep disordered breathing mediate increased susceptibility to indoor PM among overweight versus normal weight children with asthma.
Children with asthma will be enrolled in the study for about 16 weeks. They will have three clinic visits, an overnight sleep study, and two home environmental assessments for one week each. They will have a home and clinical assessment before randomization and another home and clinical assessment about 12 weeks after randomization. The primary outcome measure is maximum number of asthma symptom days.
