Impact of a Home Weatherization Program on Asthma Hospitalizations in Alaska

BACKGROUND: Over the past 10 years the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation has assisted 20,408 low-socioeconomic status (SES) families weatherize their homes. In addition to its economic and environmental benefits, home weatherization is associated with health benefits including reduced fire hazards, cardio-vascular disease, respiratory symptoms, asthma, lung cancer, skin irritation, and improved mental health. Using novel data integration, we evaluated the program impact on asthma hospitalizations. We hypothesize that the incidence of hospitalizations among program beneficiaries decreased following home weatherization. Although this program has been operating for over a decade in Alaska, the health impacts have not been explored.

METHODS: The individuals residing in each of the 20,408 weatherized homes were linked to their respective Medicaid ICD-9 codes for acute asthma diagnoses. A retrospective case-crossover design was selected, in which weatherization program beneficiaries were considered their own controls before home weatherization. Incidence rate ratios comparing the incidence rate of asthma hospitalizations before and after home weatherization will be estimated and compared.

RESULTS: This study is in progress and results are pending. The estimated incidence rate ratios will be reported as appropriate. The sample size of this study provides high study power, and the case-crossover design assures reduction of many potentially confounding factors.

CONCLUSIONS: While the benefits of home weatherization go beyond health outcomes to include reduced energy use and cost, reduced pollution, and other economic and quality-of-life benefits, a demonstrated health improvement related to home weatherization could draw funding to similar programs to reduce disparities, especially among low-SES populations.