The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has created a new program to accelerate research aimed at understanding why certain racial, ethnic, and socio-economic groups are more severely affected by asthma than other populations and at determining ways to close the gaps in prevalence and treatment of this common chronic disease.

The research -- and related training activities -- will be conducted through five newly established Centers for Reducing Asthma Disparities. Each Center is composed of an academic center with extensive experience in research and a medical school or medical center that predominately serves minority or economically disadvantaged populations.

The NHLBI initiative addresses a critical need for identifying the factors that contribute to substantially higher rates of emergency room visits, hospital admissions, and deaths due to asthma among certain populations. African Americans, for example, have a slightly higher asthma prevalence rate than Caucasians (8.5 per cent versus 7.1 per cent), yet they are three times more likely to be hospitalized or to die from asthma complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hispanics and families with low income are also at increased risk.

Scientists at the five new Centers will examine a range of research topics focusing on the differences in asthma prevalence, emergency department use, hospitalizations, and deaths between the ethnic and racial groups, and between low-income populations and their more affluent counterparts. Research projects will evaluate the role of psychosocial factors in disparities in asthma care over time, differences in symptom perception among racial and ethnic groups and how these differences affect patients' patterns for seeking care, and ways to improve communications between patients and their doctors about asthma treatment. Other studies will focus on the biological and genetic mechanisms involved in asthma disparities, such as ethnic variations in sensitivity to environmental allergens and the interrelationship between genetic susceptibility and stress, smoking, and exposure to diesel exhaust in provoking asthma symptoms.

More than 14 million Americans reported having asthma in 2000, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Asthma is a leading contributor of limited activity and absences from work and school; it also causes 5,000 deaths each year in the U.S. NHLBI estimates that the annual direct and indirect costs of asthma were $12.7 billion in 2000.

The NHLBI Centers for Reducing Disparities in Asthma initiative directly addresses one of the top four priorities of the U.S. Department of Health in Human Services' (HHS) "Action Against Asthma."

NHLBI supports other educational programs to encourage early diagnosis and effective treatment of asthma and to decrease asthma disparities. Through the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP), the Institute funds several coalitions serving communities with exceptionally high rates of asthma-related illnesses and deaths, and it provides a vital communications network for more than 40 local asthma coalitions nationwide.