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Writer's pictureElijah-Alavi Foundation

Asthma disparities exist amongst children of color.



Since the late 80s, We have been conscious that asthma was becoming a severe illness. In the African American (AA) and Hispanic communities where, there are detrimental health inequalities in asthma and treatment, especially for children of color. For African Americans (AA) and Hispanic children, asthma is a leading cause of hospitalizations and death. Studies find that African American children are hospitalized and attend the emergency room at greater rates than other race classes. Many African American (AA) children have asthma at twice the incidence of the general population. Studies have found that Hispanic children are more than twice as likely to attend urgent care and more than twice as likely to die due to an asthma attack relative to non-Hispanic children.


To counter these inequalities in the health care system, the Merck Manual has outlined critical elements that organizations and agencies can provide to achieve good quality asthma care. However, typical the “15-minute” primary care visits do not require these guidelines to be enforced, leading to some providers not consistently adhering to guidelines. The path to minimize the prevalence of asthma will significantly affect various facets of health care, life and legislation. We should start and establish targets that can change the SDOH (social determinants of health) although, It seems there is an urgency among many health providers to implement social equality in health care approaches. Further studies should be performed to identify asthma risk factors as well as more efficent treatments for asthma. In the face of this problem, the rest of us must continue to be responsible.. People of color should have the right to go to a hospital or health center and feel valuable, and equality is not equity. Providing equity would show that, it's not just about the color of their skin but, they are important as well to receive the same right of care. This can be very challenging and would take a lot of diligent work and commitment from the public health sector and advocates like us to create systemic change.






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