ATS: City-Wide Mold Intervention Can Reduce ED Asthma Visits

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By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, Senior Medical Editor, B. Pharm. Last updated on May 18, 2026.

via HealthDay

MONDAY, May 18, 2026 -- A city-wide mold intervention in public housing can reduce asthma emergency department (ED) visits, according to a study presented at the American Thoracic Society 2026 International Conference, held from May 15 to 20 in Orlando, Florida.

In 2019, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) implemented a program to remove and remediate mold ("Mold Busters"). Nina Flores, Ph.D., from The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, and colleagues hypothesized that Mold Busters would reduce asthma-related ED visits. Data were obtained from 2016 to 2023 among NYCHA residents and a Mold Busters-unexposed group living in proximate non-NYCHA lower-income census tracts. The impact of Mold Busters was examined using differences-in-differences analyses aggregated to preintervention (2016 to 2018) and postintervention (2021 to 2023) periods.

The researchers found that the Mold Busters intervention was associated with an average annual reduction of 9.0 asthma-related ED visits per 1,000 residents, yielding 2,798 fewer annual ED visits from 2021 to 2023. Five trajectory groups were identified in a latent class growth analysis; each group experienced decreases in mold report rates in the postintervention period, but decreases were larger in some groups. Groups with slower reductions in mold reporting rates were mainly larger, older, more likely not to have mechanical ventilation, and more likely to be in flood zones and neighborhoods with higher poverty. Larger reductions in asthma ED visits were seen in groups with larger reductions in mold complaints.

"The health benefits reported here likely underestimate the full scope of health-related benefits from the intervention," Flores said in a statement.

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Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

Source: HealthDay

Posted : 2026-05-19 02:40

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