Decreases in Hispanic and non-Hispanic asthma mortality.
BACKGROUND
Rates of death from asthma in the United States increased from 0.8 per 100,000 general population in 1977-1978 to 2.1 in 1994-1996, but they have decreased since then to 1.5 in 2001.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate changes in asthma mortality among Hispanics in the United States.


METHODS
Collection and graphing of data from the National Center for Health Statistics identifying asthma (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes J45-J46) as the underlying cause of death in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia among Hispanics and non-Hispanics.


RESULTS
Deaths from asthma among Hispanics decreased from 320 in 1999 to 274 in 2001, whereas deaths among non-Hispanics decreased from 4,324 to 3,976. Rates of death from asthma among Hispanics decreased from 1.0 per 100,000 general population in 1999 to 0.7 in 2001, whereas those for non-Hispanics decreased from 1.84 to 1.6. Rates have been much higher for non-Hispanic blacks than for non-Hispanic whites but have decreased for both. Death rates from asthma have been higher among Hispanic females than males but have decreased for both.


CONCLUSIONS
Asthma mortality in the United States has been decreasing since 1999 among Hispanics and non-Hispanics. These changes are consistent with better management of asthma.
Sly
R Michael
RM
Section of Allergy and Immunology, Children's National Medical Center, and Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC 20010-2970, USA. msly@cnmc.org
D001249:Asthma / Q000401:mortality*; D044383:Black People; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American