PracticeUpdate Conference Series: ERS 2018

Asthma associated with obesity Patients with asthma aremore likely to become obese within 10 years.

O besity is known to be a risk factor for devel- oping asthma, but a new study shows that the reverse is also true – patients with asthma are more likely to become obese, reports a 12-nation survey. Subhabrata Moitra, PhD, of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain, said in an ERS press release, “We already know that obesity can be a trigger for asthma, perhaps via a physiological, metabolic, or inflammatory change. “Until now,” he noted, “there has been very little research on whether the reverse is true – whether asthma can lead to obesity. In this study, we have enough people and we have followed them for long enough to observe the relationship between these two conditions.” Dr. Moitra added, “By following a large number of study participants over two decades, we have been able to observe how having asthma increases a person’s risk of going on to become obese, espe- cially if their asthma begins in adulthood or if they have asthma but no allergies.” “Our findings suggest the relationship between the two conditions is more complicated than we previously realized. It’s important that we do more work to pick this apart. For example, we do not know why having asthma increases the risk of developing obesity or whether different asthma treatments have any effect on this risk.” The research was part of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey and included 8618 par- ticipants from 12 countries who were not obese (body mass index <30 kg/m 2 ) at the start of the research. Participants were considered to suffer from asthma if they reported ever having asthma and had expe- rienced an asthma attack or were woken by an attack of shortness of breath in the previous 12 months, or if they were currently taking asthma medication. The study began recruiting in the 1990s, and par- ticipants were followed after 10 years and again after 20 years.

" The increase in the risk of obesity was even greater in people whose asthma began in adulthood. " The researchers examined relationships between having asthma at the start of the study and the likelihood of being obese 10 years later. They also studied patients who had developed asthma after 10 years in the study, including their risk of obesity by 20 years. Researchers took other risk factors into consideration, including age, sex, country, and level of physical activity. They found that 10.2% of those with asthma at the start of the study had become obese 10 years later. Among participants who did not suffer from asthma, 7.7% were obese 10 years later. The increase in the risk of obesity was even greater in people whose asthma began in adulthood. It was also greater in people who had asthma but did not suffer from allergies. TheEuropeanCommunityRespiratoryHealthSurvey I was carried out in response to the worldwide increase in asthma prevalence in the 1980s. The rise pointed to the importance of environmental factors in the development of the disease. It was the first multinational study to assess the prev- alence of asthma and allergic disease in young adults using a standardized protocol.

Dr. Subhabrata Moitra

PRACTICEUPDATE CONFERENCE SERIES • ERS 2018 16