Socioeconomic Factors Urban Life . Urban life is strongly associated with a higher risk. Although poverty plays a significant role, urban life, in fact, has been associated with a higher risk for asthma in any income group and among both children and adults. In fact, it may be greatly underdiagnosed in city children. Since 1980, asthma rates have risen the most dramatically among African American children, and they have significantly higher rates of asthma than Caucasian children.
Hispanic children are also at higher risk.
Both groups of minority children are more likely to have fatal asthma than Caucasian children. Some studies indicate that the difference in risk exists simply because African Americans and other minority groups are more likely to live in urban areas. Poverty and lack of access to health care may also play a role. However, Caucasian children who live in cities also face a high risk for asthma, and rural African-American children do not. Urban life and socioeconomic factors, however, may not fully explain the ethnic disparity.