Race-specific spirometry equations may overestimate asthma control in Black children and adolescents

Abstract

Abstract Background A growing body of evidence suggests that use of race terms in spirometry reference equations underestimates disease burden in Black populations, which may lead to disparities in pulmonary disease outcomes. Data on asthma-specific health consequences of using race-adjusted spirometry are lacking. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of 163 children from two observational asthma studies to determine the frequencies of participants with ppFEV1 19), 87% had ppFEV1 ≥ 80% using race-specific compared to 67% using race-neutral spirometry. Children whose ppFEV1 changed to ≤ 80% with race-neutral spirometry had lower FEV1/FVC compared to those whose ppFEV1 remained ≥ 80% [0.83 (0.07) vs. 0.77 (0.05), respectively; p = 0.04], suggesting greater airway obstruction. Minimal changes in alignment of ppFEV1 with ACT score were observed for White children. Conclusions Use of race-specific reference equations in Black children may increase the risk of inappropriately labeling asthma as controlled.

Keywords

• Asthma
• Race
• Asthma Control Test™
• Spirometry
• Health disparities