**3. Inner city asthma - Introduction**

Inner city asthma is a variant of asthma that afflicts patients who reside in some of the poorest neighborhoods of some urban localities [29]. These patients frequently have economic and financial difficulties and reside in housing projects that are environmentally poor with increased likelihood of pollution [30]. Several studies have demonstrated that these factors coupled to barriers to appropriate asthma care, as well as reliance on emergency care, poor medication compliance, limited availability of primary and specialty asthma care and poor communication between patient and physicians are responsible for the unique nature of this entity [31–33]. Because of these factors, the character of inner city asthma may be different from that observed in other localities. Different patterns of prevalence, predisposing factor, severity, morbidity, mortality, and management have been observed.
