“Housing First” for Optimal Child Health

Abstract

* Abbreviation: HUD — : US Department of Housing and Urban Development According to the World Health Organization, health is “a state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”1 Healthy children live in families, environments, and communities that provide them with the opportunity to reach their fullest developmental potential.1 In this issue of Pediatrics , Sakai-Bizmark et al2 share results of a large population-based study on asthma hospitalization rates among homeless youth in the state of New York. The investigators reviewed administrative data from 71 837 pediatric asthma hospitalizations over 5 years using the New York Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project’s Statewide Inpatient Database, compiled by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.2 The authors of this study build on previous work by McLean et al3 in 2004 in which the authors reported a 39.8% increase in the prevalence of asthma among homeless children in New York city. Per the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, the national rate of childhood asthma is 8.3%.4 In their work, Sakai-Bizmark et al2 found a 31 times higher rate … Address correspondence to Kerry K. Sease, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, 255 Enterprise Blvd, Suite 110, Greenville, SC 29615. E-mail: kerry.sease{at}prismahealth.org