Asthma and women of colour

[Eupnoos]

Does Asthma affect women of colour more severely than men? Is this to do with genetic pre-disposition?

[hilary39]

I don't know the answer to this particular question but I do know African American women are the group most likely to die of an asthma attack in the US (where I'm from) due to a lack of health insurance, proper medical care, and an inability to afford controller medicines. The Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America (AAFA) is doing some great work in this area:

aafa.org/asthma-disparities...

[Eupnoos in reply to hilary39]

Thank you Hilary! Here is a paper that validates what you said healthunlocked.com/api/redi...

[Eupnoos in reply to Eupnoos]

I'm trying to collect data on the effects of asthma on women as there is such generic and outdated information available. I created a survey to learn more and am inviting women to fill it in. I need about 300 respondents to get statistically significant information. Am still at 60. I hope to learn something interesting.

[Mijmijkey74 in reply to Eupnoos]

Did you learn anything interesting from it? I would have thought 600 respondents would have helped you uncover and learn something even better and consistent than from only about 300. I'm intrested to know your finding. x

[starveycat]

I don't know, but it's our lungs that are affected so I don't understand how it could be our skin colour, I do know it's a flipping nuisance

[Eupnoos in reply to starveycat]

It's because of genetic predisposition and relation to dosing. Here is an interesting paper I found : in short - Asthma hits African-Americans particularly hard, and the health care system often fails them. An estimated 15.3 percent of black children have the disease compared with 7.1 percent of white children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, African-Americans are nearly three times as likely to die from asthma as white people.

statnews.com/2019/03/26/ast...

[starveycat in reply to Eupnoos]

Have you looked into the effects of vitamin d3 ?

[Eupnoos in reply to starveycat]

Nope, will look for references. Thank you!

[Mijmijkey74 in reply to starveycat]

Skin colour can affect the type of treatment received sadly, but how skin colour impacts the actual condition called asthma of the respiratory system differently lungs/respiratory wise between different skin colours I'm not sure if it does or not apart from how people are medically treated. Maybe women of colour (white is also a colour as is pink, yellow, red, brown, black, grey) does impact women more than men? I know more biological females with asthma than biological males with asthma. That may be because of males lungs and hearts being bigger than females lungs and hearts. So males possibly have better lung and heart capacity to defend against respiratory conditions better. 🤷‍♀️

[d2read]

A good source for research on this is through the Asthma & Allergy Foundation, aafa.org. Another major contributing factor for both children and adults is environmental — women and children of color are more likely to live in urban areas, live in older hones/apartments, attend schools and work in older buildings — all of which more frequently are poorly constructed/maintained. Indoor air quality is often poorer, with higher levels of toxic mold, dust and broken-down debris from lead paint, asbestos and other dangerous materials. All of these are factors that track with greater levels of poverty, but also reflect strong community ties that can keep people in the same old location to be near family, friends and support structures.