PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Seher Zaidi
AU  - Catherine Higgs
AU  - Jonathan Lee
AU  - Ewoma Ukeleghe
AU  - Ian Benton
AU  - James Finnerty
AU  - Aravind Ponnuswamy
AU  - Stephen Scott
TI  - Are ACQ scores a useful measure of severity in obese patients?
DP  - 2013 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P812
VI  - 42
IP  - Suppl 57
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P812.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P812.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2013 Sep 01; 42
AB  - Background:Obesity is as a risk factor for asthma. We have previously shown an increased BMI can influence quality of life as an independent factor. We wished to explore whether obese asthmatic patients are more likely to have worse asthma control unrelated to measures of airway obstruction.Method:BMI, BTS management step, ACQ scores and spirometry results recorded for 230 patients attending an asthma clinic. Patients were classified according to BMI category. We compared ACQ scores and corrected ACQ score (c-ACQ) without FEV1 score. We also compared those with uncontrolled scores in each category with and without FEV1 >80%.Results:Mean (SD). Obese BMI 36.5(6.85), ACQ 2.90(1.39), c-ACQ 2.82(1.52): underweight BMI 18.8(4.2), ACQ score 3.22 (1.41), c-ACQ 3.66(1.41), normal weight BMI 23(1.46), ACQ score 2.48(1.38), c-ACQ 2.38(1.41), overweight BMI 27.3(1.51), ACQ 2.46(1.30), c-ACQ 2.43(1.37).SeeView this table:Table 1Conclusion:As BMI increases asthma control worsens despite a higher proportion of patients having normal spirometry. Further studies are required to explore the usefulness of the ACQ score in patients with a raised BMI.