Asthma mortality in U.S. Hispanics of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban heritage, 1990-1995.
We used national vital statistics data for 1990 through 1995 to examine both national and regional age-adjusted asthma mortality rates for U.S. Hispanics of Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican heritage, as well as for non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks. Nationally, Puerto Ricans had an age-adjusted annual asthma mortality rate of 40.9 per million, followed by Cuban-Americans (15. 8 per million) and Mexican-Americans (9.2 per million). In comparison, non-Hispanic whites had an age-adjusted annual asthma mortality rate of 14.7 per million and non-Hispanic blacks had a rate of 38.1 per million. Age-adjusted asthma mortality for Puerto Ricans was highest in the Northeast (47.8 per million); this region accounted for 81% of all asthma deaths among Puerto Ricans in the United States. In the U.S., Puerto Ricans had the highest asthma mortality rates among Hispanics, followed by Cuban-Americans and Mexican-Americans. In addition, among Hispanic national groups, mortality rates were consistently higher in the Northeast than the Midwest, South, or West regions. These results further support that Hispanics do not represent a uniform, discrete group in terms of health outcomes, and that further public health research and interventions should take Hispanic national origin into account.
Homa
D M
DM
Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30341, USA. dgh3@cdc.gov
Mannino
D M
DM
Lara
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M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003462:Cuba / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology