Women's Health in the News
Blacks Face Much Higher Asthma Burden
Friday, July 22, 2005
Study finds they are 12 times more likely to be hospitalized than whites
FRIDAY, July 22 (HealthDayNews) -- American urban blacks are many times more likely than their white counterparts to have an asthma-related medical emergency or to be hospitalized for asthma, researchers report.
According to a review of 152 adults and children in the greater Chicago area, blacks were 6.3 times more likely to visit the emergency room for asthma and 12.3 times more likely to have been hospitalized, when compared to whites.
Blacks also were more likely to have to limit their activities than whites due to asthma, although whites were slightly more likely to miss work or school one day per week because of asthma.
The findings appear in the July issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
Nationwide estimates blame asthma for 478,000 hospitalizations and 100 million days of restricted activity annually. Direct medical expenditures associated with asthma total $9.4 billion annually while indirect expenditures, such as lost productivity, add another $4.6 billion.
"Uncontrolled asthma is not only placing an unmanageable burden on the emergency health-care system in our most impoverished areas, but it's impacting our workforce and our ability to educate the increasing number of asthmatic students in high risk neighborhoods," said lead author Dr. Evalyn N. Grant, who was with Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago during the study.
SOURCES: American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, news release, July 15, 2005
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