Air-quality alerts for respiratory sensitive people in Sussex.
WHAT is airALERT :
is a service, provided by the Sussex Air Quality Partnership (Sussex-air), that will send free messages to your mobile or home telephone, informing you that high air pollution is predicted in your area of Sussex .
WHO will benefit from airALERT :
We want to inform asthma sufferers, the day before a pollution episode is predicted, so that it can help them make informed choices about managing their respiratory health. We are recruiting volunteers through the PCT's and asthma clinics in Sussex , who will test this service for free.
WHEN will airALERT happen:
The service was established as a pilot project for 2006 and operated through-out the summer of 2006. The summer service for 2007 will commence in May, with registration opening early 2007.
HOW does it work:
Each day we produce air-quality forecasts for the following 24 hrs or weekend (on Fridays), these "pollution" forecasts are converted to a text and voice "messages" and sent out to recipients each afternoon. The messages will only be sent if a forecast of "moderate" or "high" " air-quality is predicted, i.e. pollution levels which may trigger symptoms.
(These in accordance with the UK (DEFRA) Air Quality Bandings for air pollutants.)
WHY are we doing this:
airAlert allows us to provide information about air pollution to those who would benefit from it the most, in this case asthma sufferers. During 2006 we will assess the benefits of the service and hope to widen the number of vulnerable people who could benefit from the service in 2007.
Feed-back from 2006 airALERT pilot
To assess the success of the pilot, The University of Brighton carried out research into the service to determine the effectiveness and areas of improvement that could enhance airALERT for 2007.
During the summer of 2006 (July - September) airALERT operated with 136 volunteers with asthma across Sussex. Each person recieved registration info-packs and airALERT cards to inform them of how the service worked, what the messages meant and described what actions they could take when they received a message. During the summer airALERT sent out 27 alerts over the period of 92 days, the alerts were sent via text (to mobiles) and voice (land-line) message.
Health management Tool:
Feed back on the service from the service users contributed comments and statements which supported airALERT as a viable Health Management Tool. An example of a comment:
“It put the ball in my court. Its just another management thing, because you manage your condition yourself anyway & its just another way of managing the condition”.
Behaviour Modification:
The change in behaviour was significant for those people using the service. When people received the airALERT messages:
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67% of people modified their behaviour, of these people
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50% ensured they carried their inhaler
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44% took a preventative dose of medication
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39% took medication to relieve symptoms
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27% took less strenuous exercise
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25% avoided areas specified in the alerts
Well Being:
The overall well-being of asthma sufferers was also looked at, to assess whether just informing people about pollution provided useful health related information which would help their personal well-being: -
“It [airalert] has made me feel much more in control. That somebody actually rings me up, that confirms it, because I did at times tend to think I was imagining things. You know a lovely sunny day why do I feel poorly? It has taken that away, it's given me more confidence”.
Conclusions:
The pilot airALERT service in 2006
provided very useful information to enable the Sussex Air Quality Partnership to improve the service for 2007, it also provided evidence of significant health management improvements for patients and ultimately service providers such as the Primary and Seconday Care Units.
Key areas of where airALERT helped were:
Raised awareness of pollution episodes: Asthma patients found that they could relate periods of high pollution to when they experienced symptons. In some cases it was the first time they realised the link.
Produced health behaviour modification: Resulting information and awareness enabled service users to make informed choices and behavioural changes if the wished. These included taking preventation medication, choosing activities to lessen exposure or where they chose to go.
Enabled health empowerment: The service users were able to be informed and had the power to make their own decisions. This information had the impact of reducing likely asthma attacks and provided patients with confidence (well-being) to go about their business without some of the worries associated with asthma.
airAlert is a service provided by the Sussex Air Quality Partnership and is supported by the Sussex Primary Care Trusts, Health Protection Agency and Sussex Authorities.
