JOURNAL OF ASTHMA Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 147–157, 2004 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Latino Children with Asthma: Rates and Risks for Medical Care Utilization Jill Berg, Ph.D., 1 Dennis R. Wahlgren, M.A., 2 C. Richard Hofstetter, Ph.D., 2,3 Susan B. Meltzer, M.P.H., 2 Eli O. Meltzer, M.D., 5 Georg E. Matt, Ph.D., 4 Ana Martinez-Donate, Ph.D., 2 and Melbourne F. Hovell, Ph.D., M.P.H. 2, * 1 UCLA School of Nursing, Los Angeles, California, USA 2 Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health (C-BEACH), Graduate School of Public Health, 3 Department of Political Science, College of Arts and Letters, and 4 Department of Psychology, College of Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA 5 Allergy and Asthma Medical Group and Research Center, San Diego, California, USA ABSTRACT Latino families have been reported to underutilize health care services compared with families from other ethnic backgrounds. As part of a community trial in a low income Latino population designed to decrease environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure in children with asthma in San Diego, we examined unscheduled medical care for asthma. Latino families (N = 193) reported information about medical care use for their children during the past 12 months. About 23% were hospitalized, 45% used the emergency department, and 60% used urgent care services. About 8.5% of families had two or more hospitalizations in 12 months. Most families were insured by Medicaid or had no insurance. Significant risk factors for a child’s hospitalization were age (under age six), failure to use a controller medication, and a parental report of the child’s health status as being poor. Risk factors for emergency department use were age (under age six) and male gender. These findings indicate that low-income Latino families with young children with asthma lack the medical resources necessary for good asthma control. Quality and monitored health care with optimization of asthma management could reduce costly acute care services. Key Words: Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS); Passive smoke exposure; Childhood asthma; Medical care; Medically-underserved; Latino asthma. * Correspondence: Dr. Melbourne Hovell, Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health, Graduate School of Public Health (C-BEACH), 9245 Sky Park Court, Suite 230, San Diego, CA 92123, USA; E-mail: behepi@rohan.sdsu.edu. 147 DOI: 10.1081/JAS-120026072 0277-0903 (Print); 1532-4303 (Online) Copyright D 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com