TUESDAY, May 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) — For children and younger adults with asthma, prevalence and admissions increase with deprivation, while mortality is inversely associated with deprivation, according to a study published online May 14 in Thorax.
Ramyani P. Gupta, from the University of London, and colleagues examined the correlations of mortality, admissions, and prevalence with Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile and region using incidence rate ratios (IRRs) in England from 2002 to 2015. The IRRs were adjusted for sex and age and, when possible, smoking.
The researchers observed a decrease in asthma mortality among more deprived groups at younger ages. Five- to 44-year-olds in the most deprived quintile had 19 percent lower mortality than those in the least deprived quintile (IRR, 0.81). This pattern was reversed in older adults (aged 45 to 74 years: IRR, 1.37; ≥75 years: IRR, 1.3). Among those aged 5 to 44 years there was a large positive association for admissions (IRR, 3.34) and prevalence of severe symptoms (IRR, 2.38). After adjustment for smoking, the prevalence trends remained. There was significant heterogeneity between English regions in IRRs for asthma mortality, admissions, and prevalence.
“The previously undocumented inverse relation between deprivation and mortality in the young requires further investigation,” the authors write.
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