RACIAL and ETHNIC MINORITIES
Asthma is a chronic lung disease that can be successfully controlled with proper care. Common symptoms include coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Five steps people with asthma can take to help stay healthy and lead fully active lives:
Asthma morbidity and severity have been shown to disproportionately affect populations living in low-income and inner city neighborhoods, including African Americans and ethnic minorities. Although racial differences in asthma prevalence are small nationally, African Americans have substantially higher rates of hospitalization, emergency department visits, and mortality due to asthma than whites.
Large urban areas in the United States are able to show hospitalization and emergency department use data by smaller geographical areas. Higher rates of hospitalization, emergency room use, and mortality by neighborhood may also indicate inadequate access to primary care and disease management strategies that can keep people with asthma out of emergency rooms and hospitals.
Whether the sources of the problem are related to socio-economic level, the burden of disease, or lack of access to primary and preventive health care, or a combination of all these and more, it is clear that African Americans and ethnic minorities with asthma are experiencing poorer outcomes and will benefit from improved public awareness, regular contact with health providers, effective disease management strategies.
