College of Nursing & Health Professions

Megan Walsh

College of Nursing & Health Professions Health Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Joan R. Bloch Doctor of Nursing Practice

Yosefa Birati, MSN, M. Velma Weitz, DNP, PhD(c) Co-Mentor

A Population Study of Maternal Asthma Among Philadelphia Pregnant Women Who Received Perinatal Nurse Home Visits Due to Diabetes

Study Purpose: There is a critical need to delve deeper and study high-risk pregnant women in the context of the Philadelphia neighborhoods they reside. Asthma is the most common respiratory disease that complicates pregnancy and is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, despite this it is surprisingly understudied. Thus, the purpose of this study is to describe individual and neighborhood characteristics of the population of pregnant women who have diabetes and asthma that received home visits by nurses. Methods: Individual-level data was obtained from a research clinical database. For neighborhood-level data, a geographic information system database, Policy Map was used. Descriptive statistics were conducted for all data. Data-driven maps were created to illustrate neighborhood variation. Results: Among this medically-high risk cohort with diabetes, 6.9% (n=58) also were known to have asthma. Maps of Philadelphia revealed neighborhood variation in diabetes and asthma also aligned with patterns of neighborhoods where maternal and infant mortality is highest. Conclusions: Neighborhood tailored health care services to medically and socially high-risk pregnant women with high morbidity burden is critically needed.