African-American children in the United States were four times more likely than white children to be hospitalized for a severe asthma attack

According to a June 30th news release, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality finds that African-American children in the United States were four times more likely than white children to be hospitalized for a severe asthma attack
in 2007.

I apologize for sounding so grumpy (writing this early in the morning) but why when is it 2011 are we still looking at 2007 numbers in a 2010 report as breaking news? We know this already and have for decades. Now let’s move to the next, obvious step, how to prevent this disparity and improve the lives of all families that must deal with asthma, including minority families.

Naturally, this information is important but I just don’t understand why there is such a lag in reporting, compiling and analyzing health information.
It’s clear there are health disparities in other countries although haven’t seen any recent academic research to compare it to this study. Will do some electronic digging.

According to the 2007 statistics, “…For every 100,000 children age 2 to 17 hospitalized for asthma attacks ….384 were black, 94 were white, and 135 were Hispanic.” One interesting fact was that Asian and Pacific Islander children were the least likely to need inpatient hospital care for asthma
I’d be interested to know how many are first generation, second-generation immigrants.

Other data from the research and hospital admittance rates found:

• Children from poor families were more than twice as likely as those from high-income families to be admitted, (231 versus 102)

• Boys had about 50 percent more hospitalizations than girls, (181 versus 119).

• Children ages 2 to 4 were over 6 times more likely than children ages 15-17 to be hospitalized, (310 versus 50).

• Children in the Northeast were more likely to be hospitalized than those in the West, (196 versus 102).

For more information:
This AHRQ News and Numbers is based on information in the 2010 National Healthcare Disparities Report, which examines the disparities in Americans' access to and quality of health care, with breakdowns by race, ethnicity, income, and education.