Characteristics of Inner City Children with Life-Threatening Asthma

Poor children living in US inner cities have high prevalence of asthma as well as asthma related morbidity and mortality.(1-3) In 2013, there were 3,640 deaths due to asthma in the US; a rate of 1.1 deaths per 100,000 population.(4) Between 2007-2009, the death rate for African Americans aged 0–14 years was almost eight times greater than for whites in that age group(3). Several risk factors have been identified for fatal and near fatal asthma including a prior asthma admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), overuse of short acting beta agonists, underutilization of controller medication, poor recognition of asthma severity, psychosocial factors and multiple allergen sensitivity(5-8).

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