• Christian Rosas-Salazar, Yueh-Ying Han, John M Brehm, Erick Forno, Edna Acosta-Pérez, Michelle M Cloutier, María Alvarez, Angel Colón-Semidey, Glorisa Canino, and Juan C Celedón.
• Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonary Medicine, Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
• Chest. 2016 Jun 1; 149 (6): 143614441436-44.

BackgroundExposure to gun violence and African ancestry have been separately associated with increased risk of asthma in Puerto Rican children.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine whether African ancestry and gun violence interact on asthma and total IgE in school-aged Puerto Rican children.MethodsThis is a case-control study of 747 Puerto Rican children aged 9 to 14 years living in San Juan, Puerto Rico (n = 472), and Hartford, Connecticut (n = 275). Exposure to gun violence was defined as the child's report of hearing gunshots more than once, and the percentage of African ancestry was estimated using genome-wide genotypic data. Asthma was defined as parental report of physician-diagnosed asthma and wheeze in the previous year. Serum total IgE (IU/mL) was measured in study participants. Multivariate logistic and linear regressions were used for the analysis of asthma and total IgE, respectively.ResultsIn multivariate analyses, there was a significant interaction between exposure to gun violence and African ancestry on asthma (P = .001) and serum total IgE (P = .04). Among children exposed to gun violence, each quartile increase in the percentage of African ancestry was associated with approximately 45% higher odds of asthma (95% CI, 1.15-1.84; P = .002) and an approximately 19% increment in total IgE (95% , 0.60-40.65, P = .04). In contrast, there was no significant association between African ancestry and asthma or total IgE in children not exposed to gun violence.ConclusionsOur results suggest that exposure to gun violence modifies the estimated effect of African ancestry on asthma and atopy in Puerto Rican children.Copyright © 2016 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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