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. 2009 Aug;48(8):855-863.
doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e3181a81333.

Ethnic differences in somatic symptom reporting in children with asthma and their parents

Juan C Vasquez  1 , Gregory K Fritz  2 , Sheryl J Kopel  1 , Ronald Seifer  1 , Elizabeth L McQuaid  1 , Glorisa Canino  1
Affiliations

Ethnic differences in somatic symptom reporting in children with asthma and their parents

Juan C Vasquez et al. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2009 Aug.

Abstract

Objectives: 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.

Method: 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.

Results: 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).

Conclusions: 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.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

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