The prevalence of asthma has been increasing both in the US and worldwide. The prevalence increased by 75% in the U.S. from 1980 to1994. The prevalence of asthma among elderly aged 65 and above is reported to be 7% to 10%. However, this estimate may be an underestimate since there is evidence that asthma is under-diagnosed in the elderly. Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the US, yet very few studies involve Hispanic samples, especially the elderly. The Texas Tech 5000 survey is a large population based longitudinal epidemiological study of 5000 elderly West Texas residents. The Texas Tech 5000 sample was randomly selected from residential household telephone listings in the 108 counties of West Texas. We propose to conduct a secondary data analysis of the wave-3 of the Texas Tech 5000 survey, which will permit us to assess the prevalence, predictors, and consequences of asthma, asthma symptoms and allergy in this population. The wave-3 of the Texas Tech 5000 survey was conducted from October 20001 through December 2001. A total of 3392 subjects participated in the survey for a response rate of 86.7%. The sample includes approximately 12% Hispanics. The specific objectives of this analysis are 1) to estimate and compare the revalence of asthma, asthma symptoms, and allergies among the elderly persons, 2) to test hypotheses that asthma symptoms are less likely to result in medical assessment, diagnosis and treatment among Hispanic elderly persons and among elderly persons in rural areas, 3) to assess impact of asthma and asthma symptoms on daily life, using generic (SF-12) and asthma specific health related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaire, and 4) to determine and compare the average cost of prescription medicine used by subjects with and without asthma and how the cost of medication affects quality of life. To define asthma, two operational definitions will be used: definite asthma (based on physician-diagnosis) and probable asthma (based on asthma symptoms). Mean scores on health related quality of life, and mean number of physician office visits will be computed and compared among subjects with and without asthma. The association between asthma (definite and probable) and independent variables grouped into five categories: 1) socio-demographic variables, 2) environmental and household characteristics, 3) allergies, 4) asthma symptoms, and 5) health care access, will be analyzed using logistic regression. Proportion of elderly Hispanics and non-Hispanic subjects with asthma symptoms will be compared with regard to health care access, including medical assessment and diagnosis using chi-square statistics. A similar comparison will be made to evaluate urban/rural differences.
| Arif, Ahmed A; Rohrer, James E; Delclos, George L (2005) A population-based study of asthma, quality of life, and occupation among elderly Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites: a cross-sectional investigation. BMC Public Health 5:97 |
