Effects of weight loss on airway responsiveness in obese asthmatics: Does weight loss lead to reversibility of asthma?
Chest. 2015 Mar 12;
Authors: Pakhale S, Baron J, Dent R, Vandemheen K, Aaron SD
Abstract
Background: Growing epidemics of obesity and asthma are major public health concerns. Despite that asthma-obesity links are widely studied, the effects of weight loss on asthma severity measured by airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) have received limited attention. Our main study objective was to examine whether weight reduction reduces asthma severity in adult obese-asthmatics.
Methods: In a prospective controlled parallel group study, we followed 22 obese-asthmatic subjects aged 18-75 years, with a body mass index (BMI) >32.5kg/m2 and airway hyper-responsiveness (PC20<16mg/mL of methacholine). Sixteen subjects followed a behavioural weight reduction program for 3 months and 6 subjects were controls. The primary outcome was change in AHR over 3 months. Changes in lung function, asthma control and quality of life were secondary outcomes.
Results: At study entry, subjects’ mean age was 44 years (SD±9), 95% were females with mean BMI of 45.7kg/m2 (SD±9.2). After 3 months, mean weight loss was 16.5kg (SD± 9.9) in the weight loss group but controls had a mean weight gain of 0.6kg (SD±2.6). There were significant improvements in PC20 to methacholine (p=0.009), FEV1 (p=0.009), FVC (p=0.010), asthma-control (p<0.001) and asthma quality of life (p=0.003) in the intervention group whilst these parameters remained unchanged in the control group. Physical activity levels also increased significantly in the intervention group but not in the controls.
Conclusion: Weight loss in obese-asthmatics can improve asthma severity and result in improvements in AHR, asthma control, lung function, and quality of life. These findings support the need to actively pursue healthy weight loss measures in obese-asthmatics.
PMID: 25763936 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]
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