By Khadija Allen
In light of the broken U.S. health care system, studies show that an increase in asthma cases have risen amongst black and Hispanic children than white children, and has worsened in recent years.
Researchers analyzed that minority children surveyed out of 822,900 children from the ages of 2 to 17, experienced a higher volume of asthma-related cases where they were at-risk of becoming hospitalized or rushed for emergency visits. There is a prevalent ethnic gap amongst children of all ages as their treatments and outcomes outweigh the battle to preserve all asthma-related cases. Kate A. Stewart, of Mathematica Policy Research in Chicago and her colleagues wrote: “Black children, who at all ages were more likely to have a diagnosis of asthma and to have poorer outcomes than white children, were also more likely to receive recommended asthma medications, especially inhaled corticosteroids.”
In addition, researchers found that black children were receiving improper medical care for their asthma and not being seen to the asthma specialist on a regular basis for treatments in comparison to white children, but black children have had more asthma prescriptions filled which suggest that there will be a positive outcome for minorities in the health care system.
