People with asthma are more likely to develop obesity, study finds

Always referred to as the cause of asthma, obesity analyzed from the opposite angle in a recent study, so adults with asthma have a higher risk of being obese. The threat is even greater in patients with non-allergic asthma, long-term illness, or on corticosteroid therapy.

Published in scientific journal thorax In April, 8,700 respondents from 11 European countries and Australia took part in the survey. Its authors used data from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) cohort study collected in three waves between 1990 and 2014 and from follow-up visits at ten-year intervals.

What did researchers find about asthmatics being obese?

When the researchers compared obesity between non-asthmatic and asthmatic participants, there was a difference between the two follow-ups: At first, 14.6 percent of those who were obese were not asthmatic, increasing to 16.9 percent. asthma. In the second approach, the team linked smoking to asthma and consequently A 21% increase in obesity compared to non-asthmatics.

Analysis of the histories of the patients surveyed revealed that asthmatics with the longest disease duration were 32% more likely to become obese later in life than those with the shortest duration of lung disease. Those with non-allergic asthma have an increased risk of obesity to 47%. Those treated with corticosteroids have a 99% risk of becoming obese.

ARTICLE BMJ Journals – DOI: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217867.