Table 3

Guidelines on asthma: comparison between countries on ethnic specific statements59–75

CategoryType of statementStatement about ethnic differencesCountryEvidenceStrength
*Narrative reviews.
EpidemiologyEmpiricalHospitalisation and death rates highest among black subjectsUSACDC (1996)59III
DiagnosticsEmpiricalLung function varies across ethnic groupsUSAWoolcock (1972)60III
Hsu (1979)61III
Wall (1982)62III
Coultas (1988)63III
Crapo (1988)64III
Marcus (1988)65III
Coultas (1994)66IV*
NLQuanjer (1983)74IV*
Quanjer (1993)75IV*
Patient educationEmpiricalFailure of attending education programs is associated with minority ethnic groupUKFitzgerald (1994)73IV
RecommendationAsthma education in native language and sensitive to patient’s cultureUSAManson (1988)67III
Pachter (1993)68III
Pachter (1995)69III
Risser (1995)70III
Kleinman (1978)71IV
Woloshin (1995)72IV
Medical recordRecommendationSociocultural beliefs should be an item in medical historyUSANo reference–