Write a five page (body; double-spaced) review of the topic from a public health

Question

Write a five page (body; double-spaced) review of the topic from a public health biology perspective. In your review, include the following:
Explain the biological basis of asthma and allergic disease, including an introduction to your chosen focus area;
Discuss some of the recent (within five years) and current research on the biological focus area you chose, including study aim, methods, and results of the studies you discuss;
Explain the value and application of the above research findings to public health, citing the studies as needed, and providing some examples of how this information is or can be used in public health policy, programs, and practice.

paper must provide APA-formatted references for all resources used and adhere to APA style and format. APA style headers will be expected for the three subsections of biological basis, research, and public health application. Use subheaders as needed. A title page and a reference page is required.

Explanation / Answer

Asthma is caused by a variety of factors, but in the context of allergy, the body sees allergens (dog/cat hair, dust, pollen, mold spores, etc.) as being a harmful infectious agent similar to bacteria. As a result, it releases cytokines, histamine, and a variety of other mediators which cause:
1. bronchoconstriction (airways close up)
2. inflammation of the airways (inflammatory reaction is an immune response mediated by mast cells, basophils, eosinophils, neutrophils, etc depending on the cause of the reaction).

First, I'd suggest an intro of 1-3 paragraphs describing with the basic biology using the above as a starting point. You want to define the biology of the immune reaction which produces asthma. Medical textbooks and the links below are useful. Specifically, I'd recommend "Immunology" by Kuby and Robbins' Basic Pathology but if you have a textbook go with that one first.

Then describe who is affected and current policy relating to asthma. Good links for this:
American Asthma/Allergy Foundation: http://www.aafa.org/
Centers for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov
National Institutes of Health: http://www.nih.gov
(for CDC and NIH click on the chronic disease institutes...you'll get clinical, policy and prevention info)
American Lung Association: http://www.lungusa.org/lung-disease/asthma/

Next, narrow down to current research. There are several types of biological, immune/medical, and public health or social research being done on asthma. Consider asking yourself:
-do you want to look at childhood asthma (allergy/genetic related) or adult asthma (usually from smoking and COPD)...adult asthma introduces a whole new realm of additional things to talk about
-what genetic markers or factors have been identified for asthma? A google search will show you many things, but I'll start you off with one: neutrophil elastase
-what is the impact of low income and a smoggy environment on childhood asthma? how are household cleaners and "non-pathogenic" flora implicated in causing childhood asthma?

Third, use a specific topic area within the questions above to search/read every abstract you can find on PubMed. I say 'abstract' because it's a lot faster to go through these. But use the references in one article to find others.
Key tip: after reading the first 10-20 abstracts, you'll see them repeated over and over in the references of other articles. That's a good thing! Write down these citations because you'll want them as your own references.

I hope this gives you a good place to start. Comment or post a follow-up question for additional help!

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