According to a new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, overweight or obese children are also more prone to subsequent asthma than children with normal body weight.
Researchers (KaiserPermanente) analyzed the electronic medical records of 623.359 children aged six to nineteen years. Children were divided into four groups depending on the measurements of body weight and height: normal weight, overweight, moderate obesity and excessive obesity.
All children were monitored for one year in order to analyze the prevalence of asthma among them.
The results helped to identify the fact that children with overweight were 1.16 times more prone to asthma than children with normal weight. Children with moderate obesity were 1.23 times more likely to develop this disease, while children with excessive type of obesity had a risk increased by 1.37 times.
Among children with pre-existing asthma, it was found that moderately and excessively fat individuals were also more likely to have regular and aggressive forms of the disease compared to those whose weight remained within normal limits, which in turn led to more frequent hospital visits and oral corticosteroid treatments that lower the level of inflammation and swelling in the airways.
The researchers also found that the risk of asthma depends on the age of the children, gender and race.
Girls with moderate obesity between the ages of six and ten years old had a 1.36-fold increased risk of disease compared with healthy girls, while the risk of girls of the same age with extreme obesity was 1.56 times.
Children belonging to ethnic groups in the Asia-Pacific region with moderate obesity had a 1.41-fold increased risk of asthma, and if they had extreme obesity, the risk increased to 1.67 times.