The Pediatric Asthma Surveillance System (PASS) is a communitywide dashboard that provides holistic insights into Pediatric Asthma Vulnerability in Dallas County. PASS introduces a novel, validated Pediatric Asthma Vulnerability Index, which brings together health and social data insights to predict children’s vulnerability to poor asthma outcomes and identify areas of health disparities.
The Pediatric Asthma Vulnerability Index (also referred to as Vulnerability Index) predicts the probability of a community-level asthma-related emergency department (ED) visit or hospitalization within three months, by incorporating the effect of ten community indicators such as socioeconomic conditions, demographic characteristics, medication use patterns, health services utilization and environmental conditions, on community-level asthma risk. Additional indicators are presented under “Other Indicators,” which were not retained in the Vulnerability Index prediction model yet provide the user with actionable insights into drivers of asthma vulnerability in the community – e.g., proportion of the population reporting tobacco smoking in the neighborhood.
The Vulnerability Index and all indicators are categorized as Very High, High, Moderate, Low, or Very Low Risk based on their impact on Pediatric Asthma Vulnerability in the community. The user can drill down from the Vulnerability Index view to specific indicator views by clicking on specific indicators of interest or navigating to the “Other Indicators” tab. The user can also navigate the map from a Zip Code view to a Census Tract view to further analyze microgeographic disparities and can select a specific geography of interest for further analysis.
At every geographic level, a risk-driven, color-coded map is displayed in the center with demographic data included below the map. The top indicators contributing to the Vulnerability Index are displayed to the right of the map. To the right of each gauge, an impact score shows the degree to which the indicator contributes to the Vulnerability Index within a selected geographic area. Each gauge has a central black line indicating the vulnerability quintile of the indicator within Dallas County. Please note the data shown is not limited to the pediatric population.
Other Resources
NIH What is Asthma
CDC Learn How to Control Asthma
CDC Asthma Action Plan
