It’s not surprising that local environment plays a role in asthma rates. But new research shows just how much the micro environment — specifically, living in a census tract near a highway or railway intersection — increases the risk of asthma for children.
Co-author Young Juhn says,
…children who lived in census tracts facing the intersection with major highways or railways had about 40 to 70 percent increased risk of developing childhood asthma. … What this tells us is that clinicians need to be concerned about neighborhood environment beyond home environment to understand the individual asthma case.
Once again, I’m not an expert on this, but I’m guessing this local environment connection might help explain both the run-up in asthma rates in the 1980s and 1990s…
And the income inequality in which children get asthma:
The new study is in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, here.
Family Inequality 