Coordinated Federal Actions Are Needed to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Childhood Asthma.

Abstract

The New York State Healthy Neighborhoods Program, as described in the accompanying articles, is an innovative program that addresses a number of the priority actions identified in the Coordinated Federal Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Asthma Disparities (Action Plan), which was released in May 2012. The Action Plan was developed by a federal interagency working group under the auspices of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children. The objective of the task force is to identify priority issues within its purview that, at the federal level, can more effectively be addressed through coordinated interagency efforts, recommend and implement interagency actions, and communicate information to protect children from risks. Because of the relevance of environmental exposures and the importance of asthma as a childhood illness, the task force selected asthma as one of its focus areas. Disparities in childhood asthma are evidenced by a disproportionate rate of disease, worse asthma outcomes, and higher needs for acute medical care in some racial and ethnic minority populations. The prevalence of asthma among US children is 8.6%; however, the prevalence among black, non-Hispanic children is 13.4%. Children living in poverty also have a higher asthma prevalence at 10.4%. Furthermore, black children have a higher risk of mortality and a higher rate of emergency department visits for asthma than white or Hispanic children. Asthma is also a leading cause of missed school days, thus