Asthma Disparities in Latino Children:Acculturation,Illness Representations & CAM

Study Summary

This interdisciplinary multi-level study moves the research in asthma health disparities from descriptive studies of individual constructs and contexts to testing an integrated, multi-factorial model among Latino families and children with asthma. The investigators seek to gain a more thorough understanding of the interaction of individual characteristics, cultural and experiential factors, social-environmental context, and healthcare system factors on parents' illness representations, use of CAM and controller medications, and children's asthma health outcomes. This will be a one-year longitudinal, multi-site (Phoenix, AZ and Bronx, NY) study among samples of Mexican (N=300) and Puerto Rican (N=300) parents and children aged 5-12 who have asthma. Aim #1: Are there differences in illness representations between Mexican and Puerto Rican parents due to social and contextual factors (i.e., acculturation, education, parental age, poverty, child's illness duration, household members with asthma, and parent-healthcare provider relationship)? Aim #2: Are disparities in asthma control between Mexican and Puerto Rican children due to differences in parents' treatment decisions (CAM and controller medication use) and changes in illness representations over a one year period after controlling for the effects of acculturation, social and contextual factors, environmental triggers, and advice received from others?