California and national data suggest that American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) have a disproportionately high prevalence of asthma in comparison with other racial/ethnic groups.  Beyond this, however, relatively little is known about asthma among the AI/AN population in California.  To learn more about asthma triggers and asthma burden among California’s AI/AN population, California Breathing (CB) is pleased to announce two new data collection projects.

CB has funded the California Tribal Epidemiology Center at the California Rural Indian Health Board (CRIHB) to administer a survey about asthma and housing conditions among the AI/AN population.  With the expectation of collecting at least 450 surveys statewide, CB and CRIHB plan to use the information uncovered by this survey to develop culturally appropriate education and housing-related interventions aimed at reducing the burden of asthma among California’s AI/AN population. 
CB has also partnered with the California Area Office of the Indian Health Service to create Project BREATHE (Better Recognition of Environmental Asthma Triggers and Health Effects), which will fund three Tribal Health Programs across the state to collect data from asthma patients on asthma triggers and level of asthma control.  The three Tribal Health Programs CB will be working with are: Feather River Tribal Health (serving Butte and Sutter Counties), K’ima:w Medical Center (serving Hoopa in Humboldt County), and Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health (serving all of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties).  The data collected through Project BREATHE will lay the foundation for the creation of culturally appropriate education and environmental interventions aimed at reducing the burden of asthma among California’s AI/AN population. 
In addition to the important information that will be learned through these two projects, CB is excited to have this opportunity to develop partnerships with CRIHB, California IHS and all three Tribal Health Programs.  Working with California’s AI/AN is a new direction for CB and working on asthma is a new direction for all of these new partners.