ASTHMA AMONG PUERTO-RICAN HISPANICS - A MULTIETHNIC COMPARISON STUDY OF RISK-FACTORS

For a study of childhood asthma we interviewed 9,276 mothers during 19 93-1994, ascertaining whether they had asthmatic children younger than 18 yr of age and asking about genetic and environmental risk factors for asthma. Independent risk factors for asthma in 7,776 children were : Hispanic and African American ethnicity, maternal history of asthma, lower socioeconomic status (SES) of the mother, and the presence of a cigarette smoker in the household. Hispanic ethnicity was also a stro ng risk factor for asthma in the mother. The prevalence of asthma amon g children of Hispanic (mainly Puerto Rican) mothers with one or more children older than 9 mo of age was 18.4%, for blacks it was 11.3%, an d for non-Hispanic whites it was 7.4%. The marked increased risk for a sthma in children of Hispanic mothers was not explained by SES or mate rnal age. In addition, increased risk for asthma in these children was not associated with higher reporting of environmental tobacco smoke ( ETS) exposure. In this study of asthma in primarily Puerto Rican Hispa nics, the risk of physician-diagnosed asthma as reported by mothers wa s significantly associated with Hispanic ethnicity, and it was not con founded by SES or active smoking in the home.