Understanding Disparities in Asthma Outcomes Among African Americans
Section snippets
Factors contributing to racial disparities in asthma
Health disparities, including those related to asthma, have many causes, occurring at the levels of individuals, institutions, communities, and the broader sociopolitical context (Fig. 1). Asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality vary by traditional measures of socioeconomic status (SES) such as income and education [4], [5], [6]. However, the strong correlation between race/ethnicity and SES poses a major challenge when attempting to separate effects of race from those of SES on
Summary
Racial disparities in asthma have many causes. The literature is consistent in pointing out racial differences in quality and access to asthma care at the level of health care systems. Although this poses an urgent problem, contextual factors at the level of families and neighborhood are central to understanding racial disparities in asthma. In some instances, such contextual factors (eg, housing characteristics and traffic patterns) have the propensity to increase asthma morbidity through
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Ms. Helen Kelly for her expert technical assistance.
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