Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Although several asthma-related risk factors have been identified, there is a paucity of information on the effects of neighborhood characteristics on childhood asthma in the U.S. We examined the association between asthma and neighborhood characteristics in the U.S. using the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) data. METHODS: We used aggregated data from children aged 0 to 17 years (N = 66,037) which were obtained from the 2016-2017 NSCH cycle. We computed weighted descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression to determine the association between current asthma status and the presence of: 1) neighborhood detractors (litter or garbage, poorly kept or rundown housing, and vandalism) and 2) neighborhood amenities (sidewalks or walking paths, parks or playground, recreation center and library or bookmobile). All analyses were performed using SAS. RESULTS:About 7.93% current asthma prevalence was reported and boys had higher odds of asthma (AOR= 1.32, 95% CI= 1.16 – 1.51) compared to girls. Children who lived in neighborhoods with at least one amenity had lower odds of asthma (AOR= 0.86, 95% CI= 0.75 – 0.99) compared to those who lived in neighborhoods with no amenities. Those who lived in neighborhoods with any detractors had higher odds of asthma (AOR= 1.20, 95% CI= 1.04 – 1.40) compared to those that lived in neighborhoods without any of these elements. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings illustrate that the neighborhood characteristics are important risk factors for asthma. Childhood asthma should be studied using environmental justice and system analysis frameworks to identify environmental risk factors that could be modified to alleviate current asthma rates in children. KEYWORDS: asthma, neighborhood detractors, neighborhood amenities, neighborhood characteristics

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