(319) DEI: Asthma Prevalence and Variation Among US Population

Introduction: Asthma is a highly prevalent respiratory disease that affects 25 million Americans, with an estimated 3500 deaths annually. Increased prevalence and morbidity of Asthma is well documented among non-white Americans, including African Americans and Hispanics. This study aims to discern the association of Asthma with Color and Racial Ethnicity in the United States.

Methods: We utilized the data from The American Lung Association (ALA) State of Air website. As per the U.S. Census estimates for the 2022 county population, people of color are defined as any individual who is Hispanic or who is not Hispanic and is Black, Asian, American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander, or who is of two or more races. We trended the relationship between the number of patients with asthma diagnoses and individuals of color by state.

Results: We compared the data on the number of adult asthma patients with people of color as a percentage of the total population noted. The results showed the average percentage of adult asthma patients was 8.33%, ranging from 5.87% in Texas to 10.88% in Rhode Island. However, the analysis of the percentage of people of color showed an average of 34.73%, ranging from 7.81% in Maine to 100% in Puerto Rico. Mann-Whitney U, the non-parametric alternative test, showed the value of U = 70, which means the distribution was approximately normal. Combined, both groups’ mean of ranks was 43, & SD was 111. Our Z-Score was -7.1, with the tow-tailed p-value < .00001, signifying a statistically significant normal distribution of asthma in POC among the general population across all states of the USA.

Conclusions: Despite a higher prevalence of asthma in people of color, the percentage of asthma diagnoses across those groups remained relatively similar. This is in contrast to previous studies, which showed a variation among people of color, with African Americans having a higher overall prevalence and mortality from Asthma as compared to Whites and Hispanics. Considering our recent findings, we believe Asthma prevalence across ethnic groups remains similar, and more longitudinal studies looking into other factors, such as genetics and air quality, are needed to establish an association with recent trends in Asthma prevalence at a National Level.