Table 2.

Selected family and target child characteristics.

Characteristic	Children with asthma n = 1350	Children without asthma n = 6089
Age (years) of target child	Mean 9.2 (med 9.0)	7.9 (med 8.0)
Male sex	62%	51%
African-American	9%	5%
Caucasian	69%	68%
Hispanic	17%	21%
Family annual income ≤ $35,000	13%	13%
Family received food stamps	5%	4%
Parent reports no education beyond high school	12%	15%
Parent concerned target child is overweight	15%	10%
Overweight or obese using BMI classifications	40.5%	36.5%
Academic problems at school	10%	7%
Behavior problems at school	9%	6%
Days absent from school	4.8 (med 3)	2.2 (med 1)
No ED visits in past year	68%	82%
No inpatient hospital days	92%	94%
Days spent as hospital inpatient for children who were admitted	4.31 (med 2) n = 102	6.38 (med 2) n = 384
Hay fever/allergies	79%	35%
Sleeping problems	18%	10%
Overweight/obesity	41% whole sample 41% school-aged	37% whole sample 34% school-aged
Tonsillectomy	17%	7%
No healthcare coverage	5%	7%
Medicaid or CHIP healthcare ins	16%	13%

*Percentages are rounded.