Thorax 2000;55:239-244 ( March )

Occasional review

Asthma and poverty

Roberto J Rona

Department of Public Health Sciences, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, Guy's Campus, 6th Floor, Capital House, 42 Weston Street, London SE1 3QD, UK

Correspondence to: Dr R Rona

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

	Introduction

If the UK Department of Health's "Independent inquiry into inequalities in health"¹ had been carried out in the USA, asthma would probably have occupied a prominent place in the document. In Britain a review of the evidence on inequalities did not mention asthma as a health issue related to poverty. Americans review the association of asthma and poverty on a regular basis in the literature.^2-7 Platt-Mills³ suggested that the link between low social class and asthma was a phenomenon restricted to the USA. Is this perception correct and, if so, why should it be? In reviewing the topic it is appropriate to disaggregate several related but separate components. Poverty may contribute to the aetiology, exacerbation, recognition, and management of asthma (box 1). There is also a historical perspective that needs some consideration. In Britain both coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus were initially more prevalent among the wealthy, but . . . [Full text of this article]

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