Associations of physician-diagnosed asthma with country of residence in the first year of life and other immigration-related factors: Chicago asthma school study.
BACKGROUND
Among Mexican Americans in the United States, US-born children have higher rates of asthma than their Mexico-born peers.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the associations of immigration-related variables with physician-diagnosed asthma in a sample of Mexican American children.


METHODS
We analyzed data from the ongoing Chicago Asthma School Study, a population-based cross-sectional study, for 10,106 Mexican American schoolchildren in Chicago, Illinois.


RESULTS
Mexican American children who lived in the United States in the first year of life were more likely to have physician-diagnosed asthma than their peers who lived in Mexico in the first year of life, independent of age, sex, income, language, and country of birth (odds ratio [OR], 1.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09-2.94). The risk of asthma in US-born children was higher (but not significantly) than that observed in Mexico-born children after accounting for covariates, including country of residence in the first year of life (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 0.86-2.18). Long-term immigrants (lived in the United States for 10 years) had an increased risk of asthma compared with short-term immigrants (lived in the United States for <10 years), independent of country of residence in the first year of life (OR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.00-3.73).


CONCLUSIONS
These findings confirm the importance of early childhood exposures and environmental factors that are modified with migration and acculturation in asthma development.
Eldeirawi
Kamal M
KM
Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. keldei1@uic.edu
Persky
Victoria W
VW
D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology*; D002641:Chicago / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology