EDUCATION: URBANMAAP

Research Projects: Asthma

2. Racial and Ethnic Differences in Asthma Prevalence

Previous investigations have used hospitalization and mortality data to examine racial differences in the prevalence of asthma. These studies are complicated due to racial differences in access to health care. For example, if we look at asthma hospitalization statistics, the data suggest that there are large racial differences as shown in the following table.

If the hospitalization data are assumed to be indicative of prevalence then they suggest that blacks have a 3 to 4 times higher rate of asthma. However, if we look at National survey data, as shown in the figure below, we see that the racial differences are far smaller.

What do the UrbanMAAP survey data say?

Research Question:
What is the prevalence of asthma for each ethnic/racial group? Which group has the highest prevalence of asthma?

Guiding Research Questions: (pick one).

1. Are there racial/ethnic differences in asthma burden and are these consistent with your findings for prevalence?
2. Are there regional differences in the prevalence of asthma for each ethnic/racial group?

Additional things to think about:

• Are your results consistent with other published studies?
• Are there differences in the make-up of the different racial/ethnic groups? (e.g., are there gender differences) and how could this influence your conclusions?

Starting references:

• http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=22884
• http://www.sso.org/ecos/Asthma2/WorkInProgress/childhoodasthma/cached%20documents/CT/Asthmaepi_in_ct.pdf
• http://www.coloradohealthsite.org/CHNReports/asthmaandrace.html
• http://www.ncccsf.org/datacentral/PDF_BHSF_Report.pdf
• http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/2001/JULY/010708.htm

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