Vasquez Juan C, Fritz Gregory K, Kopel Sheryl J, Seifer Ronald, McQuaid Elizabeth L, Canino Glorisa
Drs. Fritz, Seifer, and McQuaid and Mr. Vasquez and Ms. Kopel are with the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; and Dr. Canino is with the University of Puerto Rico.
Drs. Fritz, Seifer, and McQuaid and Mr. Vasquez and Ms. Kopel are with the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; and Dr. Canino is with the University of Puerto Rico.
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2009 Aug;48(8):855-863. doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e3181a81333.
The purpose of this study is to examine the association between child and parent somatic symptom reporting and pediatric asthma morbidity in Latino and non-Latino white children.
The study consists of 786 children, 7 to 15 years of age, in Rhode Island (RI) and Puerto Rico. Children's and parents' levels of general somatic symptoms were assessed with well-established self-report measures. Clinician-determined asthma severity was based on reported medication use, asthma symptom history, and spirometry results. Asthma-related health care use and functional morbidity was obtained via parent self-report.
Child and parent reports of general somatic symptoms were significantly related to pediatric asthma functional morbidity when controlling for poverty, parent education, child's age, and asthma severity. In controlling for covariates, Latino children in RI reported higher levels of somatic symptoms than Island Puerto Rican children, and RI Latino parents reported more somatic symptoms than RI non-Latino white parents (p < .05).
This study replicates and extends to children in previous research showing higher levels of symptom reporting in Latinos relative to whites. Results also provide new insight into the relation between general somatic symptom reports and pediatric asthma. Ethnic differences in somatic symptom reporting may be an important factor underlying asthma disparities between Latino and non-Latino white children.
本研究旨在探讨拉丁裔和非拉丁裔白人儿童中，儿童及家长躯体症状报告与小儿哮喘发病率之间的关联。
该研究涵盖了罗德岛州（RI）和波多黎各786名7至15岁的儿童。采用成熟的自我报告量表评估儿童及家长的一般躯体症状水平。临床医生根据报告的药物使用情况、哮喘症状史和肺活量测定结果确定哮喘严重程度。通过家长自我报告获取哮喘相关的医疗保健使用情况和功能发病率。
在控制贫困、家长教育程度、儿童年龄和哮喘严重程度后，儿童及家长的一般躯体症状报告与小儿哮喘功能发病率显著相关。在控制协变量后，罗德岛州的拉丁裔儿童报告的躯体症状水平高于波多黎各岛的儿童，罗德岛州的拉丁裔家长报告的躯体症状多于罗德岛州的非拉丁裔白人家长（p < 0.05）。
本研究重复并扩展了先前针对成人的研究，表明拉丁裔相对于白人有更高水平的症状报告。研究结果还为一般躯体症状报告与小儿哮喘之间的关系提供了新的见解。躯体症状报告中的种族差异可能是拉丁裔和非拉丁裔白人儿童哮喘差异的一个重要潜在因素。
