Black and Latino children disproportionately experience asthma leading to more emergency room visits and missed school days, according to a new report by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in partnership with the Asthma Coalition of Los Angeles County.
The report, released on Oct. 2 and based on data from a 2023 survey, found 7.3% of children countywide reported having asthma, compared to 12.1% statewide, according to the 2023 California Health Interview Study. Black children reported experiencing the highest rates of asthma at 9.5%, followed by Latino children at 8%, white at 6.5%, multi-racial children at 6.3% and Asian 4.4%. The report acknowledged that the data for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaskan Native populations was too small a sample size to be available in this report.The data in the asthma report came from the 2023 LA County Health Survey, which surveyed a random sample of 7,391 households in LA County.
Despite those striking disparities, a decade ago, the numbers were much worse. In 2011, 24.9% of Black children in the county reported being diagnosed with asthma, according to the report…