Asthma is the most common chronic childhood illness in the United States. It is a major cause of childhood disability and accounts for a substantial number of hospital admissions, physician visits and school absences. As documented in several national studies, asthma prevalence is higher among non-Hispanic black children compared with non-Hispanic white children. Among Hispanics, [...]

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Data and Sample Two sources of data are used in this study: the 2001 Rhode Island Health Interview Survey (Rl HIS) and the 2000 U.S. census. The Rl HIS is a random-digit-dial telephone survey administered every 3-5 years. The 2001 survey collected health-related information on children and adults in sampled Rhode Island households. Within each [...]

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The analytic goal was to estimate excess risk of asthma among children in relation to neighborhood and housing characteristics as well as racial/ethnic group. Using SUDAAN (version 9.0) statistical software programs, we developed a series of logistic multivariable models. We estimated excess risk from odds ratios derived from generalized estimating equations (GEE). The GEE procedure [...]

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Figure 1 illustrates the distribution of ZCTAs by neighborhood poverty according to sociodemographic data obtained from the decennial 2000 U.S. census. Areas with the highest concentration of poverty lie within one of Rhode Island’s six core cities, where child poverty rates in 2000 exceeded 15%.

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