[Prevalence of and health care consumption for asthma and COPD in relation to ethnicity].
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether there are differences in prevalence of and health care consumption for asthma and COPD between Dutch people of Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese origin and indigenous Dutch people.


METHODS
Retrospective.


METHODS
Based on data from the 'Second Dutch national study into morbidity and interventions in general practice', we compared the prevalence of asthma and COPD in the different ethnic groups. In addition, we compared the use of various airway medications and the number of general practice contacts between these ethnic groups.


RESULTS
We analysed data of 240,067 indigenous Dutch, 2,942 Turkish, 2,416 Moroccan and 3,320 Surinamese subjects. Asthma is more prevalent among Surinamese and seems less prevalent among Moroccans. COPD seems less prevalent among immigrants than among the indigenous Dutch population. Immigrants tend to have less prescriptions of prophylactic maintenance airway medication and they also tend to have less airway-related general practice contacts than indigenous Dutch patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Differences exist in the prevalence of and health care consumption for asthma and COPD between the different ethnic groups in the Netherlands. There seems to be underdiagnosis of COPD in immigrants. Moreover, immigrant asthma and COPD patients are probably undertreated.
Universitair Medisch Centrum St Radboud, Afd. Huisartsgeneeskunde, Postbus 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen. a.uijen@hag.umcn.nl
A A
AA
Uijen
T R J
TR
Schermer
H J M
HJ
van den Hoogen
J
J
Mulder
E M
EM
Zantinge
B J A M
BJ
Bottema
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups; D009018:Morocco / Q000208:ethnology; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013532:Suriname / Q000208:ethnology; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology