Obesity Worsens Asthma (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- New research shows that obesepeople who have asthma are nearly five times more likely to behospitalized for the problem and to have lower quality of life and worsecontrol of the disease than those with asthma who are normal weight.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente, Massachusetts General Hospital andHarvard Medical School evaluated 1,113 adults with asthma, all members ofKaiser, in Oregon, Washington or Colorado.

They asked the patients about their weight, height, smoking habits,other illness, asthma treatment and their quality of life associated withasthma, as well as their asthma control and any hospitalizations relatedto the condition. They also computed their body-mass index (BMI).

"Even accounting for all of those factors, there was a pretty dramaticdifference for obese asthmatics versus non-obese asthmatics," said studyauthors Dr. Michael Schatz, chief of the department of allergy at KaiserPermanente, San Diego, and a clinical professor of medicine at theUniversity of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.

"The most severe was a nearly five times greater risk for beinghospitalized for asthma in the prior year," Schatz said. Obesity wasdefined as having a BMI of 30 or above.

The team reported its findings in the September issue of The Journalof Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found other differences associatedwith obesity. Obese patients with asthma were 2.8 times more likely tohave day-to-day problems with quality of life associated with theirdisease. They were 2.7 times more likely to have poor asthma control,too.

In previous research, Schatz said, obesity has been associated withhaving more intense asthma.

For those who had asthma and were overweight but not obese, with a BMIof 25 to 29, the findings were not as clear, Schatz said. While theresults for the overweight but not obese weren't significantly differentthan for those of normal weight, "we probably could have used morenumbers," Schatz said, explaining that the numbers of overweight but notobese persons may have been too small to tease out a difference. "Iwouldn't want to conclude that being overweight [with asthma] is the sameas normal weight in terms of risks."

His advice for trying to keep asthma in check? "In general, the bestbet would be to be at a normal weight," Schatz said.

The study adds to the base of knowledge about weight and asthma, saidDr. Christopher Cooper, a professor of medicine and physiology at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles."This adds additional evidence there is some association between the two,"he said.

The study relied on large numbers overall, he said, and the statisticsare sound. One limitation is the lack of an intervention, such asfollowing obese asthmatics who lose weight to see if their conditionimproves, he added.

Exactly why obesity seems to make asthma worse is not known. In thestudy, Schatz and his colleagues speculated that obese people may have alower self-image and not adhere to measures to make their asthma better,may not be as adherent to medication, or other factors.

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