Asthma

Background: There is increasing evidence that neighborhood-level factors, in addition to individual-level factors, may contribute directly or indirectly to childhood asthma by affecting environmental and lifestyle factors. Exposure to neighborhood crime and violence has been associated with poor health outcomes, especially among underserved and minority populations, and its effect on respiratory health is an area of active research.

 Research is needed to examine what factors determine the health care utilization patterns of Hispanic children with asthma. The purpose of this study was to profile California's Hispanic children with asthma, from 1 to 5 years of age, including their demographics, their health care access, their asthma severity, their disability due to asthma, and their health care utilization patterns. An overall sample of 149 children (N = 149) was used, whose parents reported that they were Hispanic and had a current MD diagnosis of asthma.

  Objective: Because children attend school daily, school-based interventions for children with persistent asthma could provide effective disease management for inner- city  asthmatic children.The Kunsberg School in Denver, Colorado, enrolls children with chronic diseases including asthma into a daily program of school-based disease management. his study sought to determine the impact of the Kunsberg program on asthma utilization.

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that are associated with the use of prescription medication to control asthma in California's African-American, Latino, and White children from 1 to 11 years of age. This was a secondary analysis of parental reports of the use of prescription medication by children with current asthma symptoms (defined as MD diagnosis of asthma). These children were identified from a cross-sectional survey called the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), 2001. An overall sample of 1,313 children with current asthma was used in the study.