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332281
Asthma in Miami-Dade County, Florida and United States High School Students: Contrasting Trends in Racial/Ethnic Disparities


Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Catherine Hibbitt, BS, MPH, Dept. of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Florida International University Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Miami, FL
Consuelo Beck-Sague, MD, FAAP, Dept. of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Florida International University Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Miami, FL
Florence Ukpai, BS, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Florida International University Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Miami
Mary Shaw-Ridley, PhD, MCHES, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Social & Health Research Lab, Florida International University, Miami, FL
Janvier Gasana, MD, MPH, PhD, Research Team, South Florida Asthma Consortium, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Background: Asthma is among the most common chronic pediatric conditions in the United States and particularly impacts school children. Youth from underserved racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected.

Methods:  We compared trends in asthma prevalence in Miami-Dade and US high school students by year and race/ethnicity from 2005-2013 using the CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. An asthma diagnosis was an affirmative answer to the question “Have you ever been told by a doctor or nurse that you have asthma?”

Results: Asthma prevalence in Miami-Dade students did not differ significantly by race or ethnicity in 2005 (17.2%, African-Americans; 16.5%, Hispanics; 16.2% Whites; p>.60), but rose from 2005 to 2013 to 28.0% in African-Americans and to 21.0% in Hispanics (both p<.01). Prevalence decreased in White Miami-Dade students to 12.6%, differing significantly in 2013 from prevalence in African-Americans and Hispanics. In contrast, asthma prevalence also rose nationally from 17.1% to 21.0%; p<.01), but nationally, asthma prevalence converged in 2013 at 19.9%-20.3% for White, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Asian students due to increased prevalence in Whites, Asians and Hispanics, and decreased prevalence in AI/ANs. Only African-Americans had higher asthma prevalence in 2013 nationwide (26.0% versus 20.3% in Hispanics and AI/ANs, and 19.9% in Whites [p<.01]).     

Conclusion: Striking racial and ethnic disparities emerged in asthma in Miami-Dade students due to increases in prevalence in African-Americans and Hispanics during an economic downturn that began in 2007 in Miami-Dade. Conversely, the national downturn affected students more uniformly, increasing disparities only between African-Americans and others.

Learning Areas:

Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Environmental health sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe the divergent trends in racial and ethnic disparities in asthma in Miami/Dade Florida versus US high school students Discuss the economic events that coincided with increases in poverty in minority schoolchildren in Miami/Dade Florida Explain trends in asthma in US schoolchildren

Keyword(s): Asthma, Poverty

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I conducted this research as part of my Maternal and Child Health class, using publicly-available data sets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. I conducted the analysis and wrote up the paper that I will be presenting with assistance from my co-authors.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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