Asthma statistics puzzle health officials

Where you live may play a role in whether your child has asthma. The Utah Department of Health released a survey Wednesday that found great disparity from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city when it comes to asthma rates.

Now they're wondering how genetics and environment interact in development of the breath-stealing condition.

They found, for instance, that while the state's average asthma rate for children, measured from 2003-2006, is 8.5 percent, the rates are much higher in Woods Cross/North Salt Lake (16.2 percent), Riverdale (15.8 percent), Glendale (13.1 percent), downtown Salt Lake (13 percent) and South Ogden (12.9 percent).

And the rates are considerably below that average in Bountiful (3.1 percent), Provo South (3.6 percent), Utah County South (4 percent), Lehi/Cedar Valley (4.2 percent) and North Orem (4.6 percent).

"That's a big range," said Libbey Chuy, health program specialist in the state's asthma program, "but with asthma there are so many unknowns. The cause is unknown. We know it runs in families. We also know environment filters into causing it."

They plan further analysis to determine whether the differences are statistically significant or if there are other factors that might account for it.

Most people who have asthma recognize an environmental influence in the things that trigger asthma attacks, from smoke to dust mites to perfumes to air pollution. But very little is actually known about how it all comes together. And it's made murkier by the fact that families tend to share environments, not just genes.

More confounding still is the fact that the area with the highest rate, North Salt Lake/Woods Cross, borders the portion of the state with the lowest rate, Bountiful. "We can't figure that out," Chuy said. "They're next-door neighbors."