Correlation between asthma and urbanization
In this project, we observed the correlation between asthma and urbanization in 23 countries in North America and 50 states of US. Based on outside studies, we hypothesized that there would be higher rates of asthma in countries with higher rates of urbanization. However, we rejected our initial hypothesis because … the reason will shock you!
Allen Borshch, Jessica Morales, Sevara Mallaboeva, Veronica Karapetyan & Jacklyn Pinkhasov
In this project, we observed the correlation between asthma and urbanization in 23 countries in North America and 50 states of US. Based on outside studies, we hypothesized that there would be higher rates of asthma in countries with higher rates of urbanization. However, we rejected our initial hypothesis because we found no correlation between asthma rates and percent urbanization. There could have been several other factors that contributes to our results such as genetics, dietary differences, tobacco smoke rates, ozone rates, etc.
I found this project interesting because when I first saw the topic I also initially had my own hypothesis in my head similar to the one presented on the poster. However, after looking at the data, analysis, and of course the conclusions drawn in your project, I understand why the initial hypothesis was rejected. This outcome really surprised me because I immediately agreed with the initial hypothesis stated, but the overwhelming data doesn’t lie. A job well done!
Interesting project! Your data makes me wonder if there is a difference in the percentage of people who have asthma but are undiagnosed in more urbanized countries compared to less urbanized countries. Some countries may have stricter standards when it comes to giving patients a diagnosis of asthma. There are also many factors that can discourage people from getting diagnosed. For example, some people may live in environments where their symptoms are not as severe as they would have been if they were living in a different country, and do not bother getting diagnosed, as asthma does not significantly impact their life.
This topic regarding the correlation between asthma and urbanization is very interesting. I believe there is an inherent correlation people make between the two. In particular, it was interesting to see how the percent of urbanization related to the rate of the asthma. For this graph there are two very significant outliners, I wonder if there is a particular reason for the difference. In the future if you decide to look more into this topic, it would be interesting to see the correlation between the percent of people with asthma in a population (in a particular area) and the year. In modern time the government and companies are more aware about the issues pollution can cause and have enforced regulation accordingly, it would be interesting to see the rate of asthma before such regulations existed.