Breathless Injustice: Association between Exposure To Racial Discrimination and Asthma Outcomes in Children

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1 in 12 children in the United States are diagnosed with asthma. Black children represent a disproportionate share of these diagnoses. Literature has explored environmental factors contributing to this disparity, however there are few exploring the connection between psychosocial stress and asthma diagnoses among Black children. This study aims to examine the association between children's (0-17) exposure to interpersonal racism and an asthma diagnosis using national representative data.

A quantitative study was conducted using inferential and descriptive statistics to analyze data collected in the 2021 and 2022 National Health Interview Survey. The primary exposure was self-reported interpersonal racism, and the primary outcome was lifetime diagnosis of asthma. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses, and logistic regression models (unadjusted and adjusted for demographic, healthcare, and health covariates) were performed using Stata.

In unadjusted models, interpersonal racism was associated with more than twice the odds of asthma (OR 2.26, 95% CI: 1.82-2.81,). After adjusting for demographics, healthcare variables, and health covariates, interpersonal racism still remained significantly associated with asthma prevalence (adjusted OR 1.35, 95% CI: 1.10-1.65).

Children exposed to interpersonal racism have significantly higher odds of asthma, independent of demographic, healthcare and health factors. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating interpersonal racism into models of pediatric asthma disparities.