జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ అలెర్జీ & థెరపీ

నైరూప్య

Prevalence of Atopic Disorders in Inner-City Asian Americans and the Predictive Value of Family History

Mary Lee-Wong, Vivian Chou, Merhunisa Karagic, Shirley Gomez, Leonardo Moqattash, Nanette B Silverberg, Jonathan I Silverberg and Reuben Abraham

Background: Increasing prevalence of allergic disorders has been observed over the last fifty years. The disparate rates of allergic disorders have been well-characterized in several minority groups. However, few studies have reported the distribution of atopic disorders among Asian Americans.

Objective: To gain a greater understanding of the prevalence of atopic disorders in Asian Americans presenting to an Allergy Clinic.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on 471 Asian American patients receiving treatment in an inner city allergy clinic located in New York. Family history and past medical history of asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, food allergy, and drug allergy were recorded. The patients were primarily of Chinese, Japanese or Korean origin; 34% male (n=158), 66% female (n=313), with a mean age of 32 ± 12.9 years.

Results: Allergic rhinitis (62%) and atopic dermatitis (50%) were more prevalent (P<0.001) than asthma (21%). Proportions reporting a past medical history of allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, food allergy, asthma, and drug allergy were 62%, 50%, 33%, 21%, and 21% respectively, with corresponding family history proportions of 44%, 28%, 17%, 24%, and 9%. Using the McNemar test for correlated proportions, highly significant associations between family and past medical history were observed for allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis(p<.001), but not for asthma (p=0.38).

Conclusion: Allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis were the dominant atopic disorders in this population. This data also suggests that a family history is strongly predictive of prevalence of atopic disorders such as allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis, but not asthma, among Asian Americans presented at our inner-city allergy clinic.