Poverty, race drive asthma rates more than city living

It was the day after Mothers Day in 2012 when Faith Walker ran into her East Baltimore house unable to breathe.

Her mother, Tyishia Walker, who suffers from asthma and has an older daughter with the disease, knew exactly what was wrong: Faith also had the chronic lung condition.

Im sure its from living in the city, said Tyishia Walker. We have more rats, more mice. The house is old and moldy. I believe it makes a big difference.

For the past 50 years, scientists also believed urban living led to higher rates of asthma in children. But new research from Johns Hopkins Childrens Center disputes the notion that geography alone is a major risk factor for the disease and its telltale coughing, wheezing and breathlessness.

Up to 20 percent of children in Baltimore City have asthma, compared with the national average of 9.4 percent, according to government data. There are, however, pockets around the country in suburban and rural areas where the prevalence of asthma is just as high, according to the study, recently published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The common links among 23,000 patient records reviewed from around the country appeared to be race, ethnicity and income, said Dr. Corinne Keet, a pediatric allergy and asthma specialist at Hopkins and the studys lead investigator.

Public health advocates say the information could impact how health departments allocate resources in suburban and rural areas, ensuring that at-risk kids outside of cities are screened and treated.

Key risk factors for asthma include roach and other pest allergens, indoor smoke, air pollution and premature births, but such issues are not exclusive to cities. Poor people dont necessarily escape poverty by moving out of inner cities, and those who are African-American or Puerto Rican, specifically, dont escape the genes that may be at play.

Nationally, about 17 percent of black children and 20 percent of Puerto Rican children have asthma, compared with 10 percent of white children and 8 percent of Asian children, government data show.

When we did the study we were expecting the prevalence to be higher in inner cities, Keet said. When we looked more closely at poor areas in cities and poor areas not in cities, we found there wasnt a big difference.

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Poverty, race drive asthma rates more than city living