Summary
The laboratory (Pediatric Asthma Epidemiology Research Unit) of Young J. Juhn, M.D., researches the impact of asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema on the risk of emerging or re-emerging infectious and/or chronic diseases.
As the development and discovery of important findings in this area of research continues, effort is focused on determining that asthma is a systemic disease going beyond a mere airway inflammatory disease. Dr. Juhn's research unit elucidates the mechanistic underpinnings for the influence of asthma or other atopic conditions on infection and other diseases (i.e., systemic effect).
At the same time, under the framework of a broader understanding of health in the social context, Dr. Juhn's team examines the role of socioeconomic status upon health. The goal is to understand how biomedical (e.g., immune system) and macro-environmental factors (e.g., socioeconomics) interact in a way that either promotes or compromises health.
Focus areas
- Determine the influence of asthma and other atopic conditions (allergic rhinitis or eczema) on the risks of emerging and re-emerging microbial infections or chronic diseases (e.g., heart disease) at a population level
- Detect mechanisms explaining why asthmatics have increased risks of microbial infections and chronic diseases (e.g., heart disease)
- Identify therapeutic options and public health interventions to protect people with asthma or other atopic conditions from serious microbial infections or chronic diseases
- Determine the role of socioeconomic environment (past or current) on health outcomes (i.e., research on health disparities and health differences by socioeconomic status)
- Elucidate the mechanistic pathways through which socioeconomic status operates its impact on health outcomes
- Apply Dr. Juhn's newly developed housing-based socioeconomic index (HOUSES) to research, public health and patient care
Significance to patient care
Discoveries by Dr. Juhn and his research team include:
- Finding that asthma and other atopic conditions pose significantly increased risks of serious and common microbial infections, such as community-acquired pneumonia, invasive pneumococcal disease, whooping cough, strep throat infection and ear infections. This epidemiologic discovery may potentially redefine the current understanding of asthma as a mere airway disease and impact patient care (e.g., vaccine policy), public health (e.g., recognition of a selective high-risk group for infection in a population) and research (e.g., mechanistic and therapeutic research) concerning people with asthma.
- Discovering a novel finding that asthmatics have increased risk of non-airway-related infections, such as shingles.
- Finding that asthmatics have suboptimal adaptive immune functions compared with nonasthmatics.
- Developing and validating a housing-based socioeconomic measure (HOUSES index) and currently applying this index to epidemiologic research concerning health disparities and differences. This newly developed HOUSES index enables researchers to overcome the absence of socioeconomic measures in commonly used data sources, allowing them to conduct health disparities/differences research more effectively and efficiently.
Professional highlights
- Director, Pediatric Asthma Epidemiology Research Unit, Mayo Clinic (funded by NIH R01, NIH R21 and private foundation research grants)
- Master's Faculty Privileges, Clinical and Translational Science, Mayo Graduate School
- Editorial Board Member — Journal of Allergy, International Journal of Child Health and Nutrition
- Grant Reviewer, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), 2012-present
- Ad Hoc Grant Reviewer — National Institutes of Health, British Lung Foundation, Dutch Arthritis Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Invited Reviewer — 20 peer-reviewed journals, including Pediatrics
- Lyle Weed Healthy Community Award, Olmsted County (Minnesota), 2006 and 2007
- Outstanding Achievement Award, Section on Epidemiology, American Academy of Pediatrics, 2005