# Evaluation of a HEPA Filter Pilot Project: Formative Data to Support a Future Indoor Air Quality Bronchiolitis Clinical Trial

> **NIH NIH UG1** · ALASKA NATIVE TRIBAL HEALTH CONSORTIUM · 2021 · $8,256

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Alaska Native and American Indian (ANAI) children experience a high burden of acute and
chronic respiratory disease. Wood stove use, poor ventilation, and indoor tobacco smoke
exposure have all been shown to cause poor indoor air quality (IAQ), which is associated with
increased severity and frequency of respiratory infections in children. Portable HEPA purifiers
have been shown to be effective in reducing particulate matter from tobacco and nontobacco
smoke; however, despite demonstrated links between early-life severe respiratory infections,
pediatric asthma, and adult pulmonary outcomes, no randomized trials to improve IAQ and
associated health outcomes in children with bronchiolitis have been conducted. The IDeA
States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (ISPCTN) is developing a protocol for a clinical trial to
address this gap. The proposal, “Reduction of indoor air pollution with high efficiency particulate
air (HEPA) filtration to decrease respiratory symptom burden after hospitalization for
bronchiolitis (IAQ bronchiolitis) is a placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial that aims to
evaluate the efficacy of active HEPA filtration units, as compared with inactive HEPA filtration
units, for reducing respiratory symptoms and increasing symptom-free days in children <12
months of age hospitalized with bronchiolitis.
In 2019 the YK Health Corporation (YKHC) conducted a pilot project to provide education,
HEPA filtration units and Healthy Homes Toolkits to households of children with chronic lung
conditions such as bronchiectasis in the rural Yukon Kuskokwim Delta region of Alaska. In this
diversity supplement, we will leverage and expand on a longstanding partnership between the
Alaska ISPCTN investigators and YKHC to conduct an analysis of data from this 2019 pilot. We
will assess the associations between household characteristics and HEPA filtration use,
including duration of use. We will also compare household characteristics of homes with and
without tobacco smokers. The proposed diversity supplement project will use existing data to
support and expand the IAQ bronchiolitis trial and the ECHO focus area of upper and lower
airway disease.
Alaska Native/American Indian (AN/AI) people are under-represented in the medical profession
and only 0.5% of We plan to mentor Madilyn Short, an Alaska Native (Yup’ik/Inupiat), first-year
medical student from the rural Yukon Kuskokwim (YK) Delta region of Alaska, in a collaborative
study between the Alaska ISPCTN and the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC).
Madilyn is currently working as a research intern/assistant with Dr. Singleton and the Alaska
Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Research Services and plans to complete her medical
training and eventually practice medicine in Alaska with Alaska Native people.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10411690
- **Project number:** 3UG1OD024944-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** ALASKA NATIVE TRIBAL HEALTH CONSORTIUM
- **Principal Investigator:** Matthew J Hirschfeld
- **Activity code:** UG1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $8,256
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-09-23 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10411690

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10411690, Evaluation of a HEPA Filter Pilot Project: Formative Data to Support a Future Indoor Air Quality Bronchiolitis Clinical Trial (3UG1OD024944-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10411690. Licensed CC0.

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