Frequency of asthma, food allergy ED visits high in African American children

Key takeaways:

• A higher proportion of African American vs. white, Asian and Hispanic children had to go to the ED due to asthma or food allergy.
• The private insurance rate was low in this population.

WASHINGTON — Compared with white, Asian and Hispanic children, African American children more frequently visited the ED because of asthma or a food allergy, according to study findings.

These data were presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting.

In a retrospective cohort study, Keerthi Bansal, MD, allergy/immunology fellow at Rush University Medical Center, and colleagues assessed 173 children aged younger than 12 years with comorbid food allergy and asthma to determine if ED visits related to these conditions differ based on race/ethnicity.

White patients made up a little less than half of the total population (43%), followed by Asian American patients (25%), African American patients (20%) and Hispanic patients (12%).

Between the four racial/ethnic groups, researchers found the highest rates of private insurance in the Asian American group (76%) and the white group (68%), with smaller rates among Hispanic patients (41%) and African American patients (38%).

Significantly more African American children (64.5%) had asthma-related ED visits than Hispanic (15.1%), Asian American (12.9%) and white (7.5%) children.

Keerthi Bansal

“Although all these children had some type of insurance, there are plenty of other factors linked to economic burdens that can result in lower access to outpatient and adequate care resulting in poor asthma outcomes,” Bansal said during her presentation.

Similar to the above finding, significantly more African American children vs. Hispanic, Asian American and white children had food allergy-related ED visits (55.5% vs. 14.5% vs. 15% vs. 15%).

Using logistic regression adjusted for age, gender and race, researchers found a heightened likelihood for asthma-related ED and hospital visits among those with an egg allergy (OR = 2.8; 95% CI, 1.8-3.7), and Bansal said this needs to be evaluated further in additional research.

“It is possible that the higher risk is due to use of egg in many foods as a hidden ingredient resulting in accidental exposure,” she said.

Researchers did not find higher odds for asthma-related ED and hospital visits among patients with the following food allergies: wheat, cow’s milk, soy, peanuts and tree nuts.

Reference:

Bansal K, et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2024;doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2023.11.158.