Primary household language and asthma care among Latino children.
To determine if language barriers affect the level of asthma management and quality of health care in Latino children, a cross-sectional, parent-report survey was conducted in 26 randomly selected public elementary schools in New York City. The overall response rate was 76.9%, yielding a sample of 1,847 Latino children. The prevalence of asthma among Latinos from Spanish-speaking households was 20.8%, compared with 25.8% among Latino children from English-speaking households. Although asthmatics from Spanish-speaking families were less likely to have symptoms than children from English-speaking families, they were twice as likely to be hospitalized for asthma (9.4% vs. 4.4%, p<.02). Asthmatics from Spanish-speaking households were more likely to have public health insurance and to use a community/hospital clinic for care. Spanish-speaking parents were less likely to report having access to care on weekends or to have communicated with their child's physician about recommended components of an asthma management plan.
Claudio
Luz
L
Department of Community Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA. luz.claudio@mssm.edu
Stingone
Jeanette A
JA
D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence