Big city living may not be key determinant of asthma

A new study has debunked the previous assumptions that living in big cities predispose kids to asthma.

Instead, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that being poor, black or Puerto Rican are the most important factors that determine a child’s asthma risk.

“Our results highlight the changing face of pediatric asthma and suggest that living in an urban area is, by itself, not a risk factor for asthma,” said Dr. Corinne Keet, a pediatric allergy and asthma specialist at Johns Hopkins, whose study was published on Tuesday in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Although prior studies have looked at asthma rates within specific cities, no study has compared asthma rates in inner city areas across the United States, or looked at how asthma compares in other types of communities, Keet said.

To arrive at that, the researchers used national survey data on more than 23,000 children aged 6 to 17 between 2009-2011. The team looked at rates of asthma based on population figures as well as factors such as income, race and ethnicity

Category: Education, Top Story