Influence of asthma definition on the asthma-obesity relationship

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Elcio Oliveira Vianna¹  Andrea Antunes Cetlin¹  Heloísa Bettiol²  Marco Antônio Barbieri²  Manoel Romeu Gutierrez² 

[1] Department of Medicine, Medical School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil;Department of Pediatrics, Medical School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil;

关键词: Obesity;    Asthma;    Waist Circumference;    Methacholine;    Bronchial Hyperresponsiveness;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-844

 received in 2012-02-17, accepted in 2012-09-27,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundEpidemiological studies suggest an association between obesity and asthma in adults and children. Asthma diagnosis criteria are different among studies. The aim of this study was to test the influence of asthma definition on the asthma-obesity relationship.MethodsIn a cross-sectional analysis of 1922 men and women, subjects completed a translated questionnaire from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey and underwent spirometry and a bronchial challenge test. Weight, height and waist circumference were measured. Multiple logistic regression analysis was carried out to assess the association of variables related to obesity and asthma. Asthma was defined either by the presence of symptoms with bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) or by a self-report of a physician-made diagnosis. The following variables were separately tested for associations with asthma: socioeconomic characteristics, schooling, physical activity, smoking status, anthropometry and spirometry.ResultsNo association was detected between asthma confirmed by BHR and obesity indicators, odds ratio (OR) = 1.08 (95% confidence interval: 0.69 - 1.68) for obesity assessed by body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2; OR = 1.02 (0.74 - 1.40) for obesity assessed by abnormal waist-to-height ratio; and, OR = 0.96 (0.69 - 1.33) for abnormal waist circumference. On the contrary, a previous diagnosis of asthma was associated with obesity, OR = 1.48 (1.01 - 2.16) for body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2; OR = 1.48 (1.13 - 1.93) for abnormal waist-to-height ratio; and, OR = 1.32 (1.00 – 1.75) for abnormal waist circumference. Female gender, schooling ≥ 12 years and smoking were associated with BHR-confirmed asthma. Physically inactive subjects were associated with a previous diagnosis of asthma.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that the relationship between asthma and obesity in epidemiological studies depends on the definition adopted. Certain components of asthma, for instance, symptoms may be more prone to the obesity influence than other ones, like bronchial hyperresponsiveness.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Cetlin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.