Asthma prevalence in Hispanic and Asian American ethnic subgroups: results from the California Healthy Kids Survey.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
Asthma prevalence for different ethnic groups in the United States, beyond white, black and Hispanic, is seldom reported. We compared the prevalence of asthma diagnosis among various Hispanic and Asian American ethnic subgroups using data collected from the school-based California Healthy Kids Survey.

METHODS:
The California Healthy Kids Survey was administered to 462 147 public school students in the seventh, ninth, and 11th grades throughout California during the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years. Prevalence of lifetime asthma diagnosis was calculated for 11 Asian American Pacific Islander subgroups and 8 Hispanic subgroups.

RESULTS:
Asthma prevalence among Hispanic subgroups ranged from 13.2% for Mexican American students to 22.8% for Puerto Rican students and 23.0% among Cuban American students. Lifetime asthma diagnosis among the 11 Asian American Pacific Islander subgroups ranged from 10.9% among Korean American students to 23.8% among Filipino American students.

CONCLUSIONS:
The survey revealed substantial variation in asthma prevalence between the different Hispanic and Asian American Pacific Islander subgroups and that Pacific Islanders, Filipinos, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans are at elevated risk for asthma. Differences in the distributions of characteristics related to country of birth, residential history, generational status, and/or degree of acculturation might account for much of the observed differences in asthma prevalence between ethnic subgroups. Previous asthma prevalence estimates for Asians or Hispanics are in part a function of the particular ethnic composition of the population under investigation. We suggest that asthma studies that include a substantial number of Asian Pacific Islander and Hispanic persons use a more detailed categorization of race/ethnicity.

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Author information

Author/s: Davis, Adam M (AM); Kreutzer, Richard (R); Lipsett, Michael (M); King, Galatea (G); Shaikh, Nazerah (N);

Affiliation: American Lung Association of California, 1900 Powell St, Suite 800, Emeryville, California 94608, USA. adavis(-atsign-)alaebay.org

Grants: U59/CCU922471-01-2 (Agency:PHS HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Pediatrics (Pediatrics), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Aug; vol 118 (issue 2) : pp e363-70

Dates: Created 2006/08/02; Completed 2006/09/11; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 16882779, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Asian Americans - classification; statistics & numerical data
Asthma - ethnology
California - epidemiology
Cambodia - ethnology
Central America - ethnology
Child
China - ethnology
Cuba - ethnology
Female
Health Surveys
Hispanic Americans - classification; statistics & numerical data
Humans
India - ethnology

India - ethnology
Japan - ethnology
Korea - ethnology
Laos - ethnology
Male
Mexico - ethnology
Oceanic Ancestry Group - classification; statistics & numerical data
Pacific Islands - ethnology
Philippines - ethnology
Prevalence
Puerto Rico - ethnology
Risk
South America - ethnology
Vietnam - ethnology

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