According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, asthma is the third ranking cause of hospitalization of children younger than 15 in the United States. Richard Slatcher, assistant professor of psychology in Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a five-year, $3 million grant by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to study 180 children between the ages of 10 and 15 in Detroit, using an innovative home-based naturalistic assessment tool called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR). The EAR will measure whether identified risky family behaviors are associated with greater asthma morbidity - such as symptom severity, emergency room visits and pulmonary function. "This is an important study for children in Detroit, an area that has troubling high incidences of asthma morbidity and mortality," said Hilary Ratner, vice president for research and interim dean of the Graduate School at Wayne State University.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/10/06/wayne-state-gets-3m-grant-to-study-effect-of-home-life-on-asthma/
http://www.physorg.com/wire-news/79280969/wayne-state-university-to-study-effects-of-risky-family-environm.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/wsu--wsu100511.php