Asthma prevalence among inner-city Asian American schoolchildren.
OBJECTIVE
Though asthma has been studied in many inner-city populations in the United States, there have been no studies specifically on Asian American immigrants. The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey of the prevalence of asthma among schoolchildren at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School, located in Boston Chinatown. Roughly 62% of the students in the school are Asian American.


METHODS
The authors utilized the Brief Asthma Pediatric Screen (BAPS), a five-question instrument that was validated through the Chicago public schools. The survey was administered to kindergarten through fifth grade students.


RESULTS
Of the 606 respondents (69.9% of the students), 16% had previously diagnosed asthma and 3% had possible undiagnosed asthma. Asthma was more prevalent in boys than in girls (relative risk [RR] 1.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20, 2.56). In addition, the respondents who lived in Chinatown were less likely to have been diagnosed with asthma (RR 0.59; 95% CI 0.39, 0.90), as were those with Asian surnames (RR 0.65; 95% CI 0.44, 0.97).


CONCLUSIONS
Although this study was preliminary, our results suggest that asthma rates are substantial among inner-city Asian immigrant children, but possibly lower than for other inner-city children.
Lee
Ted
T
West Suburban Family Practice Residency Program, Oak Park, IL, USA.
Brugge
Doug
D
Francis
Charlene
C
Fisher
Opal
O
D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D001900:Boston / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*