Why Is Asthma More Challenging for Arkansas Children? ACRI/UAMS Researcher Aims to Find Out with NIH Funding

LITTLE ROCK, AR. (Nov. 11, 2024) – Children who grow up in Arkansas have a harder time with asthma than their peers elsewhere, and a scientist at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI) and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) hopes to discover why.

Akilah Jefferson, MD, MSc, an early career researcher at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, will use a $662,000 four-year award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore why asthma is uniquely troublesome for Arkansas children. Jefferson is also an assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at UAMS College of Medicine. She treats children with allergies and immune conditions at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) and Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW).

Asthma is among the most common childhood conditions and can be especially daunting for children in underresourced and rural areas. In Arkansas, children living in rural communities often face higher rates of asthma, especially those from minority backgrounds or low-income families. They are also much more likely to have complications from asthma that put their lives at risk.

Jefferson and her research team will explore factors like a child’s home environment, access to healthcare and the quality of care they receive. They will also examine how different communities and healthcare providers might contribute to these disparities.

“A child’s zip code should have nothing to do with how easy it is for them to breathe. Arkansas children need our help to determine why asthma is so challenging in our state and to create new ways to help them,” Jefferson said. “Our goal is to ensure that every child, regardless of where they live, has the chance to breathe easy and thrive."

By learning more about these factors, Jefferson hopes to develop targeted interventions that can improve asthma outcomes for children in rural Arkansas. This could include providing better education about asthma management, increasing access to healthcare, or addressing environmental factors that can trigger asthma attacks.

The funds are awarded through NIH’s Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development (K23) program, designed to provide “protected time” for clinically trained researchers to receive intensive, supervised research training in biomedical research. The award supports a period of supervised research and research career development to prepare the candidate to successfully seek an NIH R01 or equivalent major research grant by the end of the award period. Tamara Perry, MD, chief of Allergy and Immunology at Arkansas Children’s and a professor of Pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine, serves as Jefferson’s mentor on the project.

This work was supported by the UAMS Translational Research Institute, which is funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, grant award Kl2 TR003108.

ABOUT ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S

Arkansas Children's is the only health care system in the state solely dedicated to caring for Arkansas' 850,000 children. The private, non-profit organization includes two pediatric hospitals, a pediatric research institute and USDA nutrition center, a philanthropic foundation, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, and many education and outreach programs — all focused on fulfilling a promise to define and deliver unprecedented child health. Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) is a 336-bed, Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma center; the state's only burn center; the state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit; the state's only pediatric intensive care unit; the state’s only pediatric surgery program with Level 1 verification from the American College of Surgeons (ACS); and the state's only nationally recognized pediatric transport program. Arkansas Children’s is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report in seven pediatric subspecialties (2024-2025): Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Neonatal Care, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and Pulmonology & Lung Surgery. Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW), the first and only pediatric hospital in the northwest Arkansas region, is a level IV pediatric trauma center. ACNW operates a 24-bed inpatient unit; a surgical unit with five operating rooms; outpatient clinics offering over 20 subspecialties; diagnostic services; imaging capabilities; occupational therapy services; and northwest Arkansas' only pediatric emergency department, equipped with 30 exam rooms. Generous philanthropic and volunteer engagement has sustained Arkansas Children's since it began as an orphanage in 1912, and today ensures the system can deliver on its promise of unprecedented child health. To learn more, visit archildrens.org.

ABOUT UAMS

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,485 students, 915 medical residents and fellows, and seven dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.

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