Socioeconomic status and medication adherence among youth with asthma: the mediating role of frequency of children's daily routines.

Objective: The current research aims to examine a potential explanation for SES disparities in youth medication adherence: the frequency of children's daily routines.

Design: In a cross-sectional sample of 194 youth with asthma (112 boys and 82 girls; average age = 12.8 years old) and their primary caregivers primarily from the Detroit metropolitan area, caregivers reported their SES and the frequency of their children's daily routines during the first laboratory visit. At a follow-up visit, caregivers and their children completed the Family Asthma Management System Scale (FAMSS), a well-validated, semi-structured interview that assess children's degree of adherence to prescribed medications.

Main Outcome Measures: Children's daily routines were measured with the Child Routines Inventory while children's medication adherence was measured with the FAMSS.

Results: Mediation analyses revealed that the association between subjective (but not objective) SES and medication adherence was partially mediated by the frequency of children's daily routines.

Conclusion: These results suggest that the frequency of children's daily routines is an important factor linking SES and medication adherence, a finding with important implications for improving health outcomes and reducing health disparities between low SES children and their high SES counterparts.