Table 1.

U.S. Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups Share a Disproportionate Burden of Respiratory Diseases

Group	Condition	Disparity	Reference(s)
Puerto Ricans and African Americans	Asthma	Highest prevalence, morbidity, and mortality	29
African Americans	More likely to develop COPD at an early age	Increased susceptibility to the detrimental effects of cigarette smoking	30
Puerto Rican women	COPD	Second-highest age-adjusted mortality rate among all ethnic groups	31
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders	Influenza and pneumonia	Sixth leading cause of death overall and fourth leading cause of death among those 65 years and older	32
African American men	Lung cancer	More prone to develop and die from lung cancer, and to present with nonlocalized disease	33–35
Hispanics and African Americans	Advanced lung cancer	More likely to have false hope about cure from chemotherapy than whites	36
African American adolescents	Obstructive sleep apnea	Disproportionately affected compared to other races/ethnicities	37–39
African Americans	Sarcoidosis and acute respiratory distress syndrome	Substantially increased risk of dying	40
Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders	Tuberculosis	Incidence rates are highest	41

Definition of abbreviation: COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.