Chest
Original ResearchAsthmaDoes Age Impact the Obese Asthma Phenotype?: Longitudinal Asthma Control, Airway Function, and Airflow Perception Among Mild Persistent Asthmatics
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
Details of the main study design have been published elsewhere.26 All participants signed written informed consents. The study was approved by the Nemours Florida institutional review board (03-016) and by all other American Lung Association Asthma Clinical Research Centers network institutional review boards. We included data from 2,794 study visit encounters involving 490 participants aged 6 to 76 years with mild persistent asthma randomized into a 16-week multicenter asthma trial assessing
Baseline Characteristics
The baseline characteristics at randomization of 490 children, adolescents, and adults are shown by age group (Table 3). Approximately 60% of participants were between 18 and 44 years of age. Adults (18 to 76 years old) tended to be female, whereas younger participants were more likely to be male (Table 3). There was a significantly higher prevalence of blacks (50%) among children than among adolescents (34%) and adults (24%). Overweight/obese prevalence increased with advancing age among the
Discussion
Obesity is a risk factor for new asthma across a broad age range1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 27 and may complicate asthma control.17, 22, 28 After assessing lung function, breath pH, airflow lability, symptom control, and airflow perception among obese and nonobese participants, we conclude that age is an important effect modifier in the obesity-asthma relationship and, along with gender, is a primary covariate determining the obese-asthma phenotype.
In summary, young children appeared to be most affected by
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: Dr Lang vouches for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Dr Lang: contributed to the conception and design of the study; acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; and drafting of the submitted manuscript.
Dr Hossain: contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Dr Dixon: contributed to the design of the study, acquisition of data, and critical editing of
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2019, Allergology InternationalCitation Excerpt :In Japanese patients, the odds ratio for asthma prevalence in obese versus lean subjects is 3.31 for males and 3.02 for females.10,11 This association between obesity and asthma is observed in most ethnic groups, across all age groups, and in both sexes,12 although some studies have noted greater effect sizes in females than in males.13–15 The relationship also appears stronger for those with central versus general adiposity.16–19
Funding/Support: This study was supported by an unrestricted grant from GlaxoSmithKline, which also supplied drugs and placebos for the parent trial, and a grant from the American Lung Association.
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (http://www.chestpubs.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml).
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A complete list of the American Lung Association Asthma Clinical Research Centers can be found in e-Appendix 1.