Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs. It causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing. Asthma can be controlled by taking medicine and avoiding the triggers that can cause an attack. You must also remove the triggers in your environment that can make your asthma worse. (https://www.cdc.gov/asthma)
The objective of this post is to provide insight into the prevalence of current asthma in Puerto Rico. This type of information can be useful for institutional strategies and activities such as: allocating human or economic resources, developing scientific hypotheses for continued research into the disease’s etiology or risk factors or the development of marketing strategies.
In an effort to survey many types of social, demographic, disease and behavioral outcomes in the United States and its associated territories, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) runs numerous population-based surveys. The information used to estimate current asthma prevalence in this article came from the latest available data from a population-based survey regularly administered by the CDC known as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Current asthma prevalence is surveyed by the BRFSS using the following question: Do you still have Asthma?
The complete methodology used to conduct the analyses shown in this post can be found here.
The following statistical remarks highlight the most meaningful differences among a selected group of demographic variables based on a logistic regression model. We encourage you to refer to the graphs and tables below for a more in-depth look at the current asthma prevalence in Puerto Rico.
An estimated 298,918 (10.67%) adults in Puerto Rico had current asthma in 2016. When evaluating current asthma by age group, adults in the 25-34 group had a 54% higher likelihood of reporting having current asthma than the 18-24 group. This difference was not significant (p-value \(>\) 0.05). Among adults, females had a 2.05 higher likelihood of reporting having current asthma compared to males. This difference was significant (p-value \(<\) 0.05). In term of education level, the group high school graduate had a 36% lower likelihood of reporting having current asthma than the reference group (those who completed only some high school). This difference was not significant (p-value \(>\) 0.05). Those with an annual income of $25k-$<$35k had a 6% higher likelihood of reporting current asthma than those whose annual income was less than $14,999. This difference was not significant (p-value \(>\) 0.05). Those who were in the unmarried couple group had a 74% higher likelihood of reporting having current asthma compared to those who reported being married. This difference was significant (p-value \(<\) 0.05). Adults who were in the a student, retired, and unable to work group were 2.46, 2.46, and 2.6 times more likely, respectively, to report having current asthma compared to those who reported being employ for wages.
Data Source: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey
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Table 1: Current asthma prevalence among adults in Puerto Rico, 2016 | |||
Prevalence | Cases | Sample Size | |
---|---|---|---|
Adults | 10.67 (9.47-11.87) | 298,918 | 5,794 |
Table 2: Current asthma prevalence among adults by age group, 2016 | |||||
Prevalence | Cases (N) | OR | OR(SE) | p-value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age group | |||||
18-24 | 8.92 (5.03-12.8) | 33,138 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
25-34 | 12.4 (8.51-16.3) | 58,144 | 1.54 | 0.33 | 0.18 |
35-44 | 10.4 (7.49-13.4) | 48,837 | 1.46 | 0.34 | 0.26 |
45-54 | 12.0 (9.10-14.9) | 57,147 | 1.38 | 0.32 | 0.31 |
55-64 | 8.91 (6.89-10.9) | 39,037 | 0.82 | 0.34 | 0.57 |
65+ | 10.7 (8.88-12.6) | 62,615 | 0.98 | 0.36 | 0.97 |
Table 3: Current asthma prevalence among adults by sex group, 2016 | |||||
Prevalence | Cases (N) | OR | OR(SE) | p-value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sex | |||||
Males | 8.87 (6.87-10.8) | 116,373 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
Females | 12.2 (10.8-13.6) | 182,545 | 2.05 | 0.16 | 0.00 |
Using the adjusted odds ratio, the group high school graduate had a 36% lower likelihood of reporting having current asthma than the reference group (some high school).
This difference was not significant (p-value \(>\) 0.05)
Table 4: Current asthma prevalence among adults by education level, 2016 | |||||
Prevalence | Cases (N) | OR | OR(SE) | p-value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Education group | |||||
Some High School | 13.0 (10.1-16.0) | 95,594 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
High School Graduate | 10.2 (7.79-12.6) | 76,720 | 0.64 | 0.23 | 0.06 |
Some Collage | 9.75 (7.60-11.9) | 69,523 | 0.72 | 0.25 | 0.20 |
College Graduate | 9.47 (7.78-11.1) | 56,299 | 0.74 | 0.24 | 0.22 |
Table 5: Current asthma prevalence among adults by income level, 2016 | |||||
Prevalence | Cases (N) | OR | OR(SE) | p-value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Income group | |||||
<15k | 11.8 (9.83-13.8) | 128,994 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
15k-<25k | 10.1 (7.88-12.4) | 69,590 | 1.00 | 0.17 | 0.98 |
25k-<35k | 9.27 (5.80-12.7) | 18,476 | 1.06 | 0.27 | 0.82 |
35k-<50k | 8.66 (5.10-12.2) | 11,018 | 1.01 | 0.29 | 0.96 |
50+k | 9.14 (5.38-12.9) | 11,848 | 1.06 | 0.29 | 0.82 |
Table 6: Current asthma prevalence among adults by marital status, 2016 | |||||
Prevalence | Number | OR | OR(SE) | p-value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Marital group | |||||
Married | 9.72 (8.20-11.2) | 103,170 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
Divorced | 9.52 (6.87-12.1) | 29,107 | 0.91 | 0.20 | 0.65 |
Widowed | 10.9 (7.89-14.0) | 24,245 | 0.80 | 0.21 | 0.30 |
Separated | 7.70 (3.53-11.8) | 10,290 | 0.78 | 0.32 | 0.45 |
Never married | 11.7 (8.80-14.6) | 86,922 | 1.05 | 0.19 | 0.77 |
Unmarried couple | 13.7 (8.88-18.6) | 44,482 | 1.74 | 0.23 | 0.01 |
Table 7: Current asthma prevalence among adults by employment status, 2016 | |||||
Prevalence | Cases (N) | OR | OR(SE) | p-value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employment status | |||||
Employ for Wages | 7.58 (5.98-9.18) | 58,928 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
Self-employed | 8.65 (4.03-13.2) | 23,887 | 1.23 | 0.34 | 0.53 |
Out of work > 1 year | 15.2 (8.37-22.1) | 34,594 | 1.60 | 0.31 | 0.13 |
Out of work < 1 Year | 13.4 (5.90-20.9) | 10,983 | 1.97 | 0.39 | 0.08 |
A homemaker | 11.5 (9.06-14.0) | 61,998 | 1.44 | 0.22 | 0.09 |
A student | 11.7 (5.15-18.4) | 21,621 | 2.46 | 0.45 | 0.04 |
Retired | 10.7 (8.74-12.7) | 52,814 | 2.46 | 0.24 | 0.00 |
Unable to work | 15.9 (11.3-20.5) | 34,093 | 2.60 | 0.28 | 0.00 |
Data Source: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey
Note: Estimates were calculated by Outcome Project, LLC