Obesity May Be to Blame for Quarter of Asthma Cases in Children

Asthma is the No. 1 chronic disease in children and some of the causes such as genetics and viral infections during childhood are things we can't prevent. About 10 percent of all kids ages 2 to 17 with asthma might have avoided the illness by maintaining a healthy weight, according to researchers at Duke University and collaborators with the National Pediatric Learning Health System (PEDSnet).

Obesity may be to blame for quarter of asthma cases in children. Image credit: Tradimus/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

For the retrospective study, researchers analyzed data for 507,496 children. Those classified as having asthma had been diagnosed at two or more doctor's appointments and had also received a prescription, such as an inhaler. Tests of their lung function also confirmed they had the disease.

Children classified as obese—those with a body-mass index (BMI) in the 95th percentile or above for their age and sex—had a 30-percent increased risk of developing asthma than peers of a healthy weight. Asthma did not affect just those with obesity.

Children who were overweight but not obese (BMI in the 85-94th percentile) also had a 17-percent increased asthma risk compared to healthy-weight peers.

The researchers calculated asthma risk using several models and adjusted for risk factors such as sex, age, socioeconomic status and allergies. The results remained similar.

More experiments are needed to prove overweight and obesity directly cause changes that lead to asthma because scientists don't completely understand how or why this would occur.

Scientists have explored hypotheses including potential differences in how children's lungs and airways develop when they are overweight, and inflammatory changes in the body due to obesity.

Still, these findings and others, such as how asthma often improves with weight loss, suggests obesity plays a key role or is directly to blame. (Tasnim News Agency)

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