Physicians sometimes prescribe inhaled steroid medications to patients suffering from asthma. Steroid medications were first introduced in the 1980s. During that time, the National Center for Health Statistics conducted a survey to determine the prescription of inhaled steroids by physicians and which patients were prescribed this type of medicine. The researchers tried to analyze the age and race of these patients.

When inhaled steroids were first released to the market, non-minority patients were generally prescribed this type of medicine. A few minority patients were prescribed to take this type of medicine. By the mid 1990s, many African American patients started using inhaled steroids while Hispanics did not avail of this treatment. Majority of the inhaled steroid users were adults. Over time, the number of children using such also increased.

Steroid medications are a breakthrough in medicine because this greatly reduced hospitalization of patients. This type of medicine has a local and quick effect. But many parts of the world were not able to avail of the benefits of steroid medications.

In a study conducted by investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Policy, it has been noticed that medications and health care systems changed over time. Yet, the change does not occur in an equal pace. There are still some racial and ethnic groups that are not exposed to these new medical techniques and technology.

Researchers noted that children and minorities are the last ones to benefit from breakthroughs. According to Timothy Ferris, MD, of the MGM Institute for Health Policy, these disparities in practices and implementation are great when new technology is introduced. For new medications to take off, doctors and patients have parts to play. Doctors need to recommend these new medicines to patients while patients have to accept and use this new medicine. The process largely depends on the doctor since patients do not know which drugs to take and which are good for them.

Another factor that causes the disparity of using new drugs and adapting to new medical practices is that minorities usually do not have access to specialists who are more in tune with the latest changes and advances in medicine. Aside from that, new medications cost more. As for the issue of the children using new drugs, drug manufacturers do not heavily invest in trials and schemes to show the public that these new medicines are safe and effective for children.

Since the 1980s, when inhaled steroids were first released to the market, there has been a slow increase in the number of African Americans using this type of medication. Hence, disparity is slowly disappearing. Despite that, asthma still remains to be a serious problem among African Americans.