[Thunderwolf]

Info on lung diseases of NAI

January 2005

• In California, American Indians were more likely to have been diagnosed with asthma than all racial/ethnic groups. Approximately 25.5 American Indian children and 20 percent American Indian adults had been diagnosed with asthma in their lifetime, compared to 21 percent African American children and 16 percent African American adults, 14 percent White children and adults, 11.7 percent Asian children and 9.2 percent Asian adults and 10 percent Hispanic children and 7 percent Hispanic adults.1
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is the eight leading cause of death from chronic disease for Native American men and the sixth leading cause of death for women.2
• American Indians have the second highest rates of cystic fibrosis following whites. One in 10,500 Native Americans have cystic fibrosis compared with one in 3,200 whites.3 Pueblo Indians and Zuni Indians have higher incidence than other Native American tribes.4
• Infection with the HIV/AIDS is rare among Native Americans as compared with whites, blacks and Hispanics. Native Americans account for less than one percent of all AIDS cases in the United States. At the end of 2002, close to 1,500 American Indians/Alaskan Natives were living with AIDS.5
• Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among American Indians and Alaskan Natives, yet of 217 native languages spoken today most, if not all, do not include a word for "cancer."6
• Lung cancer is more common in Alaskan Natives and Northern Plains tribes than among Southwestern tribes. Lung cancer death rates range from a low of 4.1 deaths per 100,000 in the Tucson Arizona district to a high of 28.5 deaths per 100,000 in the Billings district, which covers Montana and Wyoming.7 An exception to this is the Navajo Indians in New Mexico who have much higher death rates due to employment in uranium mining, which is known to contribute to lung cancer.8
• American Indians and Alaskan Natives have been documented to have high rates of RSV. One study found that the age-adjusted RSV hospitalization rates among Navajo and White Mountain Apache children less than 1 year old were three times higher than the rates reported for children of the same age group in the general U.S. population (91.3 per 1,000 vs. 31.2 per 1,000).9
• American Indian/Alaskan Native infants have SIDS rates 3 times higher than white infants and 2 times higher than the United States as a whole.10
• In 2002, 40.8 percent of Native American adults smoked; more than any other ethnic group.11 American Indians and Alaskan Native youths aged 12-17 also had the highest smoking rates compared with other racial groups.12 However, this data may be difficult to interpret since surveys typically do not separate ceremonial tobacco use from actual misuse.13
• Smoking rates among American Indian/Alaskan Natives vary by region and state. They are highest in Alaska (45.1 percent) and North Plains (44.2 percent) and lowest in the Southwest (17.0 percent).14
• In 2003, the tuberculosis case rate was nearly 6 times greater in American Indians/Alaskan Natives (8.1 per 100,000) than in non-Hispanic Whites (1.4 per 100,000).15

Taken from: http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=36053