The occurrence of childhood asthma is three times as high in Puerto Rican children compared with non-Hispanic white children. A study of more than 3,000 Hispanics in New York found that overall, Puerto Ricans reported a 13.2 percent asthma prevalence rate, compared with 5.3 percent among Domini-cans and other Latinos. The study, published in June 2000 in the American Journal of Public Health, noted that differences among Hispanic groups were not explained by location, household size, use of home remedies, education level, or the country where education was completed. In addition to having higher asthma prevalence rates, Puerto Ricans also have higher asthma death rates compared with other Hispanic groups as well as whites and non-Hispanic blacks. According to a recent study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Puerto Ricans had an age-adjusted annual asthma death rate of 40.
Black children are three times as likely as whites to be hospitalized for treatment of asthma.
And that number tells only part of the story. In July 1999, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine published research showing that hospitalization rates for asthma in New York City are as much as 21 times higher in low-income neighborhoods and those where the population is predominantly of minority race. The study appeared in the Journal of Asthma. Health Care Differences Not only are asthma rates higher in African Americans compared with whites, but several studies point to racial differences in health service use for patients with asthma. A study published in August 1998 found that African American patients with asthma enrolled in a managed care organization were 36 percent less likely than their Caucasian counterparts overall to visit an asthma specialist.