Lung Health News, Spring/Summer 2006
Latinos are the largest and fastest growing population in California. While they share a cultural heritage, they do not share a common genetic background, providing a unique opportunity to study race, genetics and environment in epidemiological research. Esteban Gonzalez Burchard, MD, is hoping to determine the genetic factors that explain why asthma prevalence and deaths are highest among Puerto Ricans and lowest among other Latino groups.
From a cultural and social perspective, Latinos represent a wide variety of national origins and ethnic and cultural groups, according to Dr. Gonzalez Burchard. From a genetic perspective, Latinos are descended from indigenous American, European and African populations.
“By taking advantage of such diversity, we may gain a much more thorough understanding of disease, its causes, and its distribution that will benefit all,” says Dr. Gonzalez Burchard, one of 17 researchers funded last year through the American Lung Association of California’s research program, which granted nearly $1 million to lung disease research in fiscal year 2005-2006.
While there are differing views, studies suggest that Puerto Ricans may have higher asthma prevalence rates than non-Latino Whites and any other Latino subgroup, while Mexican Americans may have the lowest rates of all racial/ethnic groups, according to the American Lung Association’s Lung Disease Data in Culturally Diverse Communities. The study noted that differences among Latino groups were not explained by location, household size, use of home remedies or education level.
