Asthma-20

Epidemiology - Population disparities

Asthma prevalence, morbidity, mortality, and drug response vary greatly across populations.

There is an almost 30-fold difference in asthma prevalence between some of the countries included in the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood, with a trend toward more developed and westernized countries having higher asthma prevalence. Westernization can’t explain the entire difference in asthma prevalence between countries, however, and the disparities may also be affected by differences in genetic, social and environmental risk factors. There are also worldwide disparities in asthma mortality, which is most common in low to middle income countries.

Asthma prevalence in the US is higher than in most other countries in the world, but varies drastically between diverse US populations. In the US, asthma prevalence is highest in Puerto Ricans, African Americans, Filipinos and Native Hawaiians, and lowest in Mexicans and Koreans. Mortality rates follow similar trends, and response to albuterol is lower in Puerto Ricans than in African Americans or Mexicans. As with worldwide asthma disparities, differences in asthma prevalence, mortality, and drug response in the US may be explained by differences in genetic, social and environmental risk factors.

Asthma prevalence also differs between populations of the same ethnicity who are born and live in different places. US-born Mexican populations, for example, have higher asthma rates than non-US born Mexican populations that are living in the US. This probably reflects differences in social and environmental risk factors associated with acculturation to the US.

Asthma prevalence and asthma deaths also differ by gender. Males are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma as children, but asthma is more likely to persist into adulthood in females. Sixty five percent more adult women than men will die from asthma. This difference may be attributable to hormonal differences, among other things. In support of this, girls who reach puberty before age 12 were found to have a later diagnosis of asthma more than twice as much as girls who reach puberty after age 12. Asthma is also the number one cause of missed days from school.

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