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Individual and area-based indicators of socioeconomic status and childhood asthma

G Cesaroni1, S Farchi, M Davoli

  • 1Dept of Epidemiology, Local Health Unit RME, Rome, Italy. cesaroni@asplazio.it

The European Respiratory Journal
|October 30, 2003
PubMed

Insights

Lower socioeconomic status in children is linked to higher asthma prevalence and severity. Parental education and neighborhood disadvantage significantly predict asthma hospitalizations, with individual factors showing stronger correlations.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Asthma Research
  • Socioeconomic Determinants of Health
  • Environmental Epidemiology

Background:

  • Childhood asthma remains a significant public health concern.
  • Socioeconomic status (SES) is increasingly recognized as a critical factor influencing health outcomes.
  • Understanding the interplay between individual and area-based SES indicators and pediatric asthma is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between individual and area-based socioeconomic status indicators and childhood asthma.
  • To examine the relationship with asthma prevalence, severity, and lifetime hospitalisation in children.
  • To determine the relative importance of individual versus area-based SES measures in predicting asthma-related outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from 4,027 children (aged 6-7) in Rome from the 1994 International Study on Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) initiative.
  • Employed logistic regression models to analyze associations between parental education, small-area SES index, average income, and asthma outcomes.
  • Controlled for parental smoking as a potential confounder.

Main Results:

  • Asthma prevalence increased with decreasing father's education (11.3%).
  • Severe asthma prevalence rose with lower maternal and paternal education levels (1.6%).
  • Lifetime asthma hospitalisation (2.8%) was strongly linked to both parental education and area-based social disadvantage, with individual indicators showing better correlation.

Conclusions:

  • Socioeconomic conditions significantly influence asthma occurrence, severity, and hospitalisation in children.
  • Area-based social disadvantage is an independent predictor of asthma hospital admissions.
  • Individual socioeconomic indicators demonstrated a stronger correlation with asthma outcomes compared to area-based indicators.

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