The Air Quality Health Index; Is it useful in managing the paediatric patient?

Objectives:

1. To review current evidence on outdoor air pollution, including traffic related air pollution, and its effects on respiratory and cardiac health.
2. To understand the Air Quality Health Index, as a health risk communication tool, and to discuss the role of the AQHI in managing pediatric patients and their families
3. To discuss gaps in the evidence base for the AQHI
   

Summary:

Air pollution is silently responsible for a large burden of illness, causing 2682 premature deaths, 10,966 hospital admissions and 92,690 ER visits per year in Canada, according to the Canadian Medical Association’s 2008 report, National Illness Cost of Air Pollution. Most vulnerable are patients with chronic cardiac and respiratory illnesses, as well as children, seniors and diabetics. Acute exposure to air pollution is associated with acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia, stroke and aggravating cardiac failure, COPD and asthma. 

The Air Quality Health Index is a measure of health risk posed by air pollution in the community. The program is in many communities in Canada, and is on the Weather Channel, so patients will be learning about it. It is designed so that vulnerable patients will be able to assess their risk from air pollution, and avoid exposure by reducing outdoor activities. This presentation will review the health effects of air pollution, and the role of the AQHI in counseling paediatric patients and their families.

Presenter:

Dr. Alan Abelsohn, MD, FCFP
Medicine (University of Cape Town Medical School) 
Family Medicine (University of Toronto) 
Environmental Health (McMaster University)

Alan Abelsohn is a Family Physician in Toronto, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He joined Health Canada as physician-epidemiologist in the Air Quality Health Index program in March 2009.  He graduated from the University of Cape Town Medical School, studied Family Medicine at the University of Toronto, and obtained a Diploma in Environmental Health at McMaster University in 1997.

He is co-author of: “Addressing the health effects of climate change: Family physicians are key”, “A Curriculum in environmental health for family medicine” and “Urban sprawl and public health” for the Ontario College of Family Physicians; a series “ Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects” in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2002, and “Environmental public health tracking/surveillance in Canada: A commentary.” in Healthcare Policy 2009.

This event is an accredited group learning activity as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada