Asthma and Childhood Obesity

Asthma and Children with Obesity have More Asthma Problems Says University of California Study

The study was conducted at the University of California San Diego and looked at over 32,000 children who had been diagnosed with asthma with half of them also suffering from excessive weight or obesity. Researchers found that the children who were overweight had numerous prescriptions for inhalers to provide them with albuterol, which opens the airways during an asthma attack, than those whose weights were normal.

Rates of inhaler use were close, at 2.8 inhalers for normal weight and 3.1 inhalers for those overweight, but still show an increased effect that weight could have on controlling the symptoms. They also noted that the heavier children used more steroid based inhalers as well which are used to keep airway inflammation controlled on a daily basis.

“Preventing obesity, and stressing the importance of weight loss might improve asthma control and exacerbation risk in children and decrease the incidence of asthma in adults,” wrote the researchers in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. This is particularly relevant as they also showed that obesity had risen by 17% with asthma by 10% in the past decades.

Dr. Kenneth B. Quinto from the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues looked back at more than 32,000 kids who’d been diagnosed with asthma and were enrolled in a Kaiser Permanente health plan. Nearly half of the children were overweight or obese.

The researchers found that the heavier kids were more likely to have more than a handful of yearly prescriptions for rescue inhalers, which contain short-acting drugs such as albuterol that open up the airways when an asthma attack is coming on.

On average, normal-weight children used 2.8 rescue inhalers a year, whereas obese kids used 3.1.

The heavy youngsters also used more inhaled steroids, such as Pulmicort or Flovent, which are a mainstay treatment to keep airway inflammation under control on a daily basis in asthmatics.

And the results held up after Quinto and his colleagues accounted for alternative explanations of the differences, such as sex, race, diabetes and parents’ education levels.

The team speculates that the extra pounds might be weighing on the lungs, making obese kids feel like they need more medication. Scientists have also found that overweight people don’t respond as well as others to steroids, which might help explain the new findings.

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