Puerto Ricans in the Bronx, NY: Sociocontextual influences on asthma - building and neighborhood type

Puerto Ricans residing in the United States are disproportionately burdened by asthma; rates seem to be higher than that of any other Latino subgroup, non-Latino Blacks as well as non-Latino Whites. I hypothesize that the relationship between building type and neighborhood type among a cohort of Puerto Rican women in the Bronx, NY and mother-reported respiratory illness and allergy of child at age 4 are related; that is, as the factors related to asthma in the building or neighborhood increase, the amount of children's respiratory illness and allergy increases as well. Asthma issues related to building type include location of participant (building floor), number of stories of building, year building was built, number of units (residential/non-residential), zoning/use, and lot frontage/building size. Factors related to neighborhood type include education level, proportion of persons below poverty level, average household income, renter-occupied households, types of income support, demographics, land use, owner-occupied households, and density of green space. I will analyze ~200 singleton births of mothers aged 16-46 using multiple regression (fixed effects). In all, this work is particularly important because no U.S. study seems to consider the building type in relation to respiratory illness and allergy, and the typology of the building has ready environmental, legal, and urban planning implications within policy and program design. Further, while neighborhood factors have been linked to many health issues, including asthma, this study deepens that exploration by examining aspects of the neighborhood particularly related to asthma, which may have direct program and policy implications.