Welcome to the Web Site of the Inner-City Asthma Study (ICAS)

ICAS Staff login here.

ICAS is a 7-site cooperative study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). ICAS was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of two types of interventions to reduce asthma morbidity and severity among 937 inner-city children, ages 5-11, with moderate to severe asthma. Each participant was enrolled for two years, the intervention year and a follow-up year. An Environmental Intervention and a Physician Feedback Intervention were studied using a 2x2 factorial design.

The Physician Feedback intervention entailed a novel communication and education system that provided physicians with up-to-date information on the child's symptoms, medication use, and health care utilization. The Environmental Intervention focused on the home environments of the children, involving education and remediation of environmental exposures including cockroaches, dust mites, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), mold, furry pets, and rodents.

ICAS Principal Investigators:

Ellen F. Crain, MD, PhD	Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx
Richard Evans III, MD, MPH	Northwestern Univ. Medical School, Chicago
Rebecca S. Gruchalla, MD, PhD	U.T. Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
Meyer Kattan, MD, CM	Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York
Wayne Morgan, MD, CM	Univ. of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson
George T. O'Connor, MD, MS	Boston Univ. School of Medicine, Boston
James W. Stout, MD, MPH	Univ. of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle

ICAS Data Coordinating Center Principal Investigator:

Herman Mitchell, PhD

Rho Federal Systems Division, Chapel Hill, NC

ICAS Project Officers:

Ernestine Smartt, RN	National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
J. Patrick Mastin, PhD	National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Questionnaires that were used in ICAS are available below. To view and/or print a form, click on its link below.

• Adult Baseline Clinical Evaluation Forms: Questionnaires completed at study enrollment by the adult caretaker of the child.
• Child Baseline Clinical Evaluation Forms: Questionnaires completed at study enrollment by the child.
• Bi-monthly Follow-up Phone Call Form: Asthma symptom, medicine and health care utilization questionnaire completed via telephone every two months (for 2 years) by the adult caretaker of the child.
• Home Environment Survey Form: Survey of the child's home environment completed at baseline and every six months afterward by an ICAS Home Evaluator.
• Asthma Diary Form: Two-week diary of daily symptoms, medication use, and home pulmonary function monitoring using the Simplicity portable monitoring device; completed at six-month intervals.

For information regarding the ICAS project please contact:

• Herman Mitchell, Ph.D., Coordinating Center P.I., or
• Michelle Walter, M.S., ICAS Project Director