The effect of obesity on pulmonary lung function of school aged children in Greece

Abstract

Obesity impacts on many issues of pulmonary medicine, where it is debated if obesity is linked to asthma, atopy or altered lung function tests. Our study aimed to investigate primarily the effect of obesity on the lung function tests and secondary the possible link of obesity with atopy and asthma in a large cohort of children in Greece. Body mass index (BMI) and data from a questionnaire for lung health, atopy, nutritional habits and family history were obtained from 2,715 children aged 6-11 years. Six hundred fifty-seven children with BMI>85th percentile (357 overweight, 300 obese) and a group of 196 normal weight children underwent spirometry. The % expected FVC, FEV(1), FEF(25-75), and FEV1/FVC were significantly reduced in overweight or obese children compared to children with normal weight (P = 0.007, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001, respectively). Reported atopy was significantly higher in overweight or obese children compared to normal weight children (P = 0.008). High BMI remained a strong independent risk factor for asthma (OR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.22-3.87, P = 0.009) and for atopy (OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.32-3.22, P = 0.002). The effect of increased BMI on asthma was significant in girls, but not in boys (OR = 2.73, 95% CI = 1.09-6.85, P = 0.032; OR = 1.74, 95% CI = 0.83-3.73, P = 0.137, respectively). In conclusion we have shown that high BMI remains an important determinant of reduced spirometric parameters, a risk factor for atopy in both genders and for asthma in girls.

Is Obesity Related to Worse Control in Children with Asthma?

“…Some authors accuse obesity in pathogenesis of asthma while some regard obesity as the outcome and asthma as the risk factor (5). It has been demonstrated that obesity is an important determinant of reduced lung function test results and a risk factor for atopy in children (16). However, it has also been proposed that low energy expenditure due to the inactivity in asthma may be a risk factor for development of obesity (5).…”

Obesity induced bronchopulmonary hyperresponsiveness in Tunisian women

“…Comparison with other studies Using spirometry tests, Spathopoulos et al 34 investigated the effect of obesity on lung function performance in a large cohort of Greek children aged 6-11 years. Similar to our female adult data, their results indicated that all the pulmonary function parameters, including FEV 1 , FVC, FEV 1 /FVC and FEF 25À75 , were significantly reduced in overweight or obese children compared with normal weight children (P ¼ 0.007, Po0.001, Po0.001 and Po0.001, respectively).…”

The effect of obesity on asthma in children

“…Erişkinlerde yapılan çalışmalarda, genel olarak obezite ile solunum fonksiyon parametrelerinde (özellikle FEV1 ve FVC) azalma saptanmıştır (11)(12)(13)(14)28) . Çocuklardaki sonuçlar çelişkilidir (17,18,(29)(30)(31)(32)(33) . Çalışmamızda obezite ile solunum fonksiyonları arasında anlamlı farklılık saptamadık.…”

“…Bazı çalışmalarda solunum fonksiyon testleri (özellikle FEV1 ve FVC) ile obezite arasında pozitif ilişki bulunmuştur (17,29) . Negatif ilişki saptanan çalışmalarda bulunmaktadır (30,31) . Çalışmamızdaki gibi obezite ile solunum fonksiyonları arasında ilişki saptanmayan çalışmalarda bulunmaktadır (18,32,33) .…”