Gender-specific differences in associations of overweight and obesity with asthma and asthma-related symptoms in 30 056 children: result from 25 districts of Northeastern China

Abstract

There is an association between asthma symptoms and obesity in these Chinese children, and obesity had a significantly larger effect on females than males.

Childhood body mass index and wheezing disorders: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…= 28; I 2 = 64%; 95% CI: 46–76%). When meta‐analysis was carried out on 21 studies that presented adjusted risk estimates of overweight on childhood wheezing disorders, the summary risk estimate was slightly accentuated (OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.19–1.42; p < 0.001) whereas the between‐study heterogeneity substantially decreased (Q = 27, d.f. = 20, p = 0.12; I 2 = 27%, 95% CI: 0.0–57%) (Fig.…”

“…= 20; I 2 = 82% (95% CI: 73–88%). However, when the analysis was repeated on the adjusted risk estimate of obesity on wheezing disorders available from 16 studies , the heterogeneity was attenuated (Q = 28, d.f. = 14, p = 0.02; I 2 = 46%, 95% CI: 3–70%) whilst the summary risk estimate slightly increased (OR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.42–1.81) (Fig.…”

“…A total of 29 studies presented data on the number of cases and non-cases in the overweight and normal BMI groups that included a total of 1,075,042 children (7,8,(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60)(61)(62)(63)(64)(65)(66)(67)(68)(69). The summary of the ORs showed that there was a significant increased risk of wheezing disorders (OR: 1.23, 95% CI: 1.17-1.29; p < 0.001) ( Fig.…”

Asthma is Different in Women

“…Asthma in early childhood is generally associated with male gender, poor socioeconomic status, and exposure to soot, exhaust and/or household tobacco, wood, or oil smoke [19, 20]. Yet, asthma in early childhood is only associated with obesity in young girls, not in young boys in two large cross-sectional series from China and the Netherlands [21, 22], and in two longitudinal cohorts from the United Kingdom and Taiwan. The U.K. study followed children longitudinally until the age of 8 years and found that a higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with increased wheezing in girls but not in boys [OR (95CI): 1.52 (1.01, 2.28)] [23].…”

The relevance of obesity on asthma control in identical twins

“…In this regard, a recent paper addressed this issue and underlined the close association between asthma and obesity. 8 For these reasons, we would like to present a particular case concerning two identical twins with asthma. They are males, 30 years old, and are still living with parents.…”