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Using a New York State inpatient database, researchers analyzed asthma-related hospitalizations among homeless and nonhomeless pediatric (<18 years old) patients. Of roughly 72,000 pediatric patients with asthma-related hospitalizations between 2009 and 2014, 53% were <5 years old, 37% were African American, 61% were boys, and 61% were on public insurance. The 16% of patients who were homeless were more likely to be nonwhite, younger, female, and on public assistance. The overall asthma hospitalization rate was 73.8 per 1000 homeless children, compared with 2.3 per 1000 nonhomeless children.
After adjusting for possible confounding variables, homeless children had significantly higher odds of admission from the emergency department (ED; odds…