New research suggests living in a large city might not increase one's risk of asthma after all.
The findings revealed race and income have a much larger impact on asthma risk than where a person lives, Johns Hopkins Medicine reported.
To make their findings, the researchers looked at more than 23,000 U.S. children. They found no difference between children living in urban areas and those who lived in rural ones as far as asthma rates are concerned. They did find a strong link between poverty, the African-American race and Puerto Rican ethnicity -- a higher-than-average asthma risk. The children included in the study were between the ages of 6 and 17.
The findings revealed 13 percent of inner-city participants had asthma, compared with 11 percent of children living in less urban areas. However, the difference disappeared once the researchers factored in "race, ethnicity and geographic region in their analysis." The findings also revealed children from families living below the poverty line were more likely to be diagnosed with asthma.
"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 lead investigator Dr. Corinne Keet, a pediatric allergy and asthma specialist at Johns Hopkins. "Instead, we see that poverty and being African American or Puerto Rican are the most potent predictors of asthma risk."
The findings highlight dramatic demographic shifts, such as an increase in poverty in rural areas. The researchers noted public health interventions should be tailored to fit these changes.
"Our findings suggest that focusing on inner cities as the epicenters of asthma may lead physicians and public health experts to overlook newly emerging 'hot zones' with high asthma rates," said senior author Dr. Elizabeth Matsui, pediatric asthma specialist and associate professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
