Source: Annual Congress 2012 - Predicting and observing paediatric allergic disease
Disease area: Airway diseases, Paediatric lung diseases

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The relationship between obesity and asthma show inconsistent results.
The purpose of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of asthma according to obesity in a large sample of the child population in our region (total population 2795422).
METHODS: A cross-sectional study, following the ISAAC study methodology, was conducted on randomly selected 6-7 year old children.
The asthma symptoms, demographic characteristics, and other potential risk factors were determined from the questionnaire. Overweight and obesity were defined based on the body mass index.
Multiple logistic regression were used to obtain adjusted prevalence odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) between asthma symptoms and obesity.
RESULTS: Finally, 7485 children were included (50.8% female).
Our results shown that 23.4% of our children were overweight, and 9.6% were obese.
The prevalence of wheezing ever was 39.0%, that of current asthma 13.5%, severe asthma 4.9%, and exercise induced asthma 6.4%.
Obesity was associated with an increase in the probability of wheezing ever (OR: 1.35) and exercise induced asthma (OR: 1.62).

Odds ratio for prevalence of asthma symptoms according to obesity and overweight in children

	Wheezing ever	Current asthma	Exercise induced asthma	Severe asthma
	OR (95% CI)	OR (95% CI)	OR (95% CI)	OR (95% CI)
Normal weight	1	1	1	1
Overweight	1.07 (0.92-1.25)	1.10 (0.88-1.36)	1.10 (0.80-1.52)	0.96 (0.66-1.41)
Obesity	1.35 (1.10-1.66)	1.31 (0.98-1.74)	1.62 (1.10-2.36)	1.20 (0.74-1.94)

OR: Odds Ratio. CI: Confidence interval. Adjusted by gender, cat and dog keeping, maternal education, parental asthma and parental smoking.

CONCLUSION: In our population, obesity was associated with a higher prevalence of asthma in young children.

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F.J. Gonzalez-Barcala, S. Pértega, J. Sánchez Lastres, M.A. San José Gonzalez, L. Bamonde, L. Garnelo, T. Pérez Castro, M. Sampedro, L. Valdes, J.M. Alvarez-Dobaño, L. Ferreiro, A. López Silvarrey (Santiago de Compostela, Coruna, Spain). Obesity and asthma symptoms in children. Eur Respir J 2012; 40: Suppl. 56, 1943

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