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  • Risk factors for asthma prevalence and chronic respiratory illnesses among residents of different neighbourhoods in Buffalo, New York

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Risk factors for asthma prevalence and chronic respiratory illnesses among residents of different neighbourhoods in Buffalo, New York
  1. Jamson S Lwebuga-Mukasa1,
  2. Tonny J Oyana1,2,
  3. Paulette Wydro1
  1. 1Centre for Asthma and Environmental Exposure, Lung Biology Research Program, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaleida Health Buffalo General Division, UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, USA
  2. 2Department of Geography, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr J S Lwebuga-Mukasa
 Centre for Asthma and Environmental Exposure, Lung Biology Research Program, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, Department of Internal Medicine, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Kaleida Health Buffalo General, 100 High Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA; jlwebugabuffalo.edu

Abstract

Study objective: The aim of this study is to identify risk factors for asthma prevalence and chronic respiratory illnesses in Buffalo’s neighbourhoods after previous studies reported increased levels of asthma among residents on Buffalo’s west side.

Design: Cross sectional surveys.

Setting: Buffalo neighbourhoods along a US-Canada border crossing point.

Subjects: A systematic random survey of 82% of the 2000 targeted households was conducted between January and August 2002.

Main results: A multivariate logistic regression model shows that the risk of persons with asthma and chronic respiratory illnesses is significantly (p⩽0.05) high among children and young adults living in Buffalo’s west side, newer housing units, and of Latino ethnicity. In a separate analysis of the nine risk factors, it was observed that location, gender, age, and race were significant risk factors even after adjusting for age of housing, pets, moulds, animal trigger, and smoking.

Conclusions: These findings confirm the hypothesis that a considerable risk of asthma and chronic respiratory illnesses exists particularly among Buffalo’s west side residents. Further evaluation of these risk factors is warranted to determine the severity of asthma and the reasons for such a significant disease burden.

  • EPA, Environment Protection Agency
  • NAFTA, North American Free Trade Agreement
  • CAEE, Centre for Asthma and Environment Exposure
  • asthma
  • logistic model
  • risk factors

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2003.015750

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    Footnotes

    • Funding: this study was supported in part by RO1-CCR220259-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to JL-M. TO-J was supported by the Troup Fund, Kaleida Health Foundations.

    • Conflicts of interest: none declared.

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