Mexican-American children born in the United States are more likely to have asthma than children born in Mexico, but it is not clear why, researchers reported on Friday. They found that children of Mexican descent born in the United States were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with asthma and wheezing than those who had been born in Mexico, and also to have ear infections. But U.S.-born children also are more likely to get medical care and thus may be more likely to have been diagnosed, the researchers report in the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology. Kamal Eldeirawi of the University of Illinois at Chicago and colleagues at the University of Southern California analyzed information from the families of 4,121 Mexican-American children. Their parents took part in a U.S. government survey of health and nutrition. Eldeirawi's team compared reports of asthma and wheezing in the past year among children born in the United States to those born in Mexico and later immigrated. --More 2342 Local Time 2042 GMT
