title: Procedures to Assist Health Care Providers to Determine When Home Assessments for Potential Mold Exposure Are Warranted.
abstract: Drawing evidence from epidemiology and exposure assessment studies and recommendations from expert practice, we describe a process to guide health care providers helping their patients who present with symptoms that might be associated with living in damp housing. We present the procedures in the form of a guided 2-part interview. The first part has 5 questions that triage the patient toward a more detailed questionnaire that reflects features of housing conditions known to be reliably associated with exposures to mold and dampness contaminants. We chose the questions based on the conditions associated with moisture problems in homes across the United States and Canada. The goal is to facilitate the clinician's effort to help patients reduce exposure to environmental triggers that elicit symptoms to better manage their disease.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Environmental Health, Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Ga. Electronic address: GJC0@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Ginger L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.affiliation: UL Environment, Marietta, Ga.
authors.forename: W Elliott
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Horner
authors.affiliation: Center for Environmental Health, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Mo.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.affiliation: Healthy Habitats, LLC, Denver, Colo.
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grimes
authors.affiliation: Center for Environmental Health, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Mo.
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology and Allergy, Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass.
authors.forename: Wanda
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Phipatanakul
authors.affiliation: Hospital Medica Sur, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: Désirée
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Larenas-Linnemann
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: J David
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D005658:Fungi; D006282:Health Personnel; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity
keywords: Allergens; Allergy; Asthma; Fungi; Home assessment; Mold; Questionnaire