Social Determinants of Health Independent Risk Factors for Asthma

TUESDAY, Oct. 28, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Social determinants of health (SDoH) are independent risk factors for asthma, according to a study published online Oct. 24 in the Journal of Asthma.

Feng Yang, Ph.D., from Baotou Medical College in China, and colleagues analyzed 39,340 participants, including 5,645 with asthma and 33,695 without, to examine the link between SDoH and asthma, using data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Machine learning models that combined demographic, clinical, and SDoH variables were assessed using area under the curve (AUC).

The researchers found a 5.5 percent increase in asthma risk per SDoH index unit in unadjusted models (odds ratio, 1.055), which remained significant after adjustment for demographics and clinical factors (odds ratios, 1.045 and 1.039 in models 2 and 3, respectively). Smokers and those with diabetes had stronger SDoH-asthma associations (odds ratios, 1.08 and 1.12), but those with higher education did not. Superior predictive performance was seen in model 3, which included SDoH variables (training AUC, 0.779), with minimal generalizability loss (Δ AUC, 0.206).

“The results show that SDoH are independent risk factors for asthma, with particularly significant effects in specific populations. Integrating SDoH can significantly optimize the performance of asthma risk prediction models,” the authors write.

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