Racial Differences Persist in Older Adults with Asthma

A study of 4,700 older adults in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice found that asthma symptoms and outcomes in African Americans and Hispanics persistently diverged from whites, reports Healio . The researchers gauged social factors that included healthcare access and costs, and demographic data. African Americans and Hispanics were younger, and had higher body-mass index and lower education levels and household incomes than white subjects — and were more likely to be smokers. Moreover, African Americans and Hispanics were more likely than whites to report impaired access to healthcare due to cost and gaps in health insurance coverage. Those same ethnic groups also tended not to use asthma medication or only use rescue medication, while white subjects more often used inhaled corticosteroids or another single agent, as well as two controller medications. Thirty-two percent of African Americans and 23 percent of Hispanics visited the emergency department (ED) for asthma symptoms during the previous year, compared with 14 percent of whites. The chances of having at least one asthma-related ED visit during the previous 12 months were twice as high for African Americans and Hispanics versus whites — yet African Americans and Hispanics were 40 percent less likely than white subjects to report uncontrolled daytime asthma symptoms.