African-American children suffering from asthma are readmitted to hospitals more often than other children primarily because of socio-economic factors, a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics has concluded.

In a study conducted in Cincinnati, according to the report, “Socioeconomic hardship variables explained 53% of the observed disparity” in readmissions among African-American children with asthma. The study also found that

A total of 80% of the observed readmission disparity between African American and white children could be explained after statistically balancing available biologic, environmental, disease management, access to care, and socioeconomic and hardship variables across racial groups.

These findings are especially relevant to private safety-net hospitals because the communities they serve often have especially large numbers of low-income and low-income African-American children.

Read more about the study, its findings, and its implications in the JAMA Pediatrics article “Explaining Racial Disparities in Child Asthma Readmission Using a Causal Inference Approach, “which can be found here.