TY - JOUR T1 - Insulin therapy correlates with increased risk of asthma among patients with diabetes in a Taiwanese population cohort JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P2989 AU - Chiung-Zuei Chen AU - Chih-Hui Hsu AU - Chung-Yi Li AU - Chun-Hsiang Yu AU - Tzuen-Ren Hsiue Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P2989.abstract N2 - Rationale: Recent reports have suggested that anti-diabetes agents such as metformin has reduced both airway inflammatory and remodeling properties. In contrast, insulin promotes airway smooth muscle contraction and enhances airway hyper-responsiveness- a cardinal feature of asthma. However, all of these results are from in-vitro studies. The aim of this study was to investigate whether diabetes and different anti-diabetes agents prescription associates with the risk of asthma.Methods: We conducted a prospective population-based case-control study using the Taiwan National Heath Insurance (NHI) claim database from 2000 to 2010 to compare the incidence of asthma with Cox proportional hazards regression model in patients with diabetes (n = 19,428) and an matched control group (n = 38,856). A nested case-control study including 3,596 patients from NHI database was also conducted to estimate the association between anti-diabetes agents and risk of asthma.Results: The incidence of asthma was significantly higher in those with a diagnosis of diabetes in regression models adjusted for age, sex, and obesity (hazard ratio [HR] 1.33; 95% CI: 1.26-1.41). There was a significant increased risk of asthma among diabetic patients who were prescribed insulin therapy (OR 1.16; 95%CI: 1.02-1.31), but the risk was not associated with any oral anti-diabetes agents.Conclusions: Individuals with diabetes are at increased risk of asthma. Diabetic patients who were prescribed insulin further increase risk of asthma by 16%. These results support the current knowledge that insulin has the potential to influences lung structure and function and thus modulating asthma predisposition. ER -