CHICAGO, Jun 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Neighborhoods with restaurants,
entertainment and diversity had lower rates of asthma than neighborhoods with
churches or non-profits, U.S. researchers said.
Dr. Ruchi Gupta of Children's Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago focused on 287 Chicago neighborhoods
where nearly 50,000 children grades K-8 were screened for asthma. Chicago has
twice the national average asthma mortality rate.
"Previous studies showed that neighborhoods right next to each other with
similar racial makeup had very different asthma rates; we wanted to see what
else was going on in each neighborhood to cause such a disparity," Gupta, the
study leader, said in a statement.
Civic-minded neighborhoods with more registered voters, restaurants,
entertainment, cultural facilities and ethnic diversity had lower asthma rates
than those neighborhoods characterized by churches and not-for-profit facilities
where people were less likely to move, the study said. Other factors affecting
the rate of childhood asthma included income and education, cockroaches, dust
mites, mice and rats and exposure to air pollution, Gupta said.
"With these insights, we are better equipped to develop more effective
interventions to help reduce asthma in children living in urban environments,"
Gupta said.
The study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International