• Neeta Thakur, Sam S Oh, Elizabeth A Nguyen, Melissa Martin, Lindsey A Roth, Joshua Galanter, Christopher R Gignoux, Celeste Eng, Adam Davis, Kelley Meade, Michael A LeNoir, Pedro C Avila, Harold J Farber, Denise Serebrisky, Emerita Brigino-Buenaventura, William Rodriguez-Cintron, Rajesh Kumar, L Keoki Williams, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Shannon Thyne, Saunak Sen, Jose R Rodriguez-Santana, Luisa N Borrell, and Esteban G Burchard.
• 1 Department of Medicine.
• Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 2013 Nov 15; 188 (10): 120212091202-9.

RationaleThe burden of asthma is highest among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations; however, its impact is differentially distributed among racial and ethnic groups.ObjectivesTo assess the collective effect of maternal educational attainment, annual household income, and insurance type on childhood asthma among minority, urban youth.MethodsWe included Mexican American (n = 485), other Latino (n = 217), and African American (n = 1,141) children (aged 8-21 yr) with and without asthma from the San Francisco Bay Area. An index was derived from maternal educational attainment, annual household income, and insurance type to assess the collective effect of socioeconomic status on predicting asthma. Logistic regression stratified by racial and ethnic group was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI). We further examined whether acculturation explained the socioeconomic-asthma association in our Latino population.Measurements And Main ResultsIn the adjusted analyses, African American children had 23% greater odds of asthma with each decrease in the socioeconomic index (aOR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.09-1.38). Conversely, Mexican American children have 17% reduced odds of asthma with each decrease in the socioeconomic index (aOR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.72-0.96) and this relationship was not fully explained by acculturation. This association was not observed in the other Latino group.ConclusionsSocioeconomic status plays an important role in predicting asthma, but has different effects depending on race and ethnicity. Further steps are necessary to better understand the risk factors through which socioeconomic status could operate in these populations to prevent asthma.

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