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LOWER PREVALENCE OF ASTHMA AND WHEEZE AMONG HISPANIC CHILDREN ALONG HTE U.S. MEXICO BORDER
Citation:
Gonzales, M, L Neas, C. Walsh, AND S Rhoney. LOWER PREVALENCE OF ASTHMA AND WHEEZE AMONG HISPANIC CHILDREN ALONG HTE U.S. MEXICO BORDER. Presented at American Thoracic Society, Atlanta, GA, May 17-22, 2002.
Description:
Lower Prevalence of Asthma and Wheeze Among Hispanic Children Along the U.S. Mexico Border. Melissa Gonzales, Debra Walsh, Scott Rhoney, Lucas M. Neas. US EPA, ORD, NHEERL, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
Due to increases in the U.S. Hispanic population, the need has arisen to standardize English and Spanish language respiratory health questionnaires. In the spring of 2001, the parents of 7,036 children aged 7 to 11 years residing in El Paso, Texas, responded to a questionnaire in either Spanish or English. In order to encourage participation, all parents received both English and Spanish language questionnaires. By ethnicity and language preference, the respondents were 20% Non-Hispanic/English, 48% Hispanic/English, and 32% Hispanic/Spanish. No differences were observed in response rates or missing values in those questions regarding the main health outcomes across the three groups. After adjustment for the child's sex, parental educational status, single adult household, parental smoking and school region, both Hispanic ethnicity and Spanish language preference were associated with lower prevalence of a physician's diagnosis of asthma (Hispanic OR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.48-0.67); (Spanish OR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.45-0.68)). Hispanic ethnicity was also associated with a lower prevalence of wheeze (OR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.46-0.78), but wheeze prevalence was only marginally further reduced by Spanish language (OR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.57-1.07). These differences in prevalence appear to be more related to ethnicity than to differences in English/Spanish questionnaires.
(This abstract does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.)