Interrelationship between body mass index and asthma in children suffering from asthma-analytical cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: Bronchial asthma and obesity are correlated diseases that are highly prevalent among children. The effect of increased body mass index (BMI), aggravating asthma, is currently controversial in this group. The aim of this study is to determine the association between Body Mass Index and severity of asthma among obese children with asthma and normal- weight children with asthma in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data from a cross-sectional analysis of 64 participants from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were analyzed. Symptoms were assessed through children's and caregivers' responses to a pretested questionnaire. Grouping of children into obese (18) and nonobese (46) was based on their body mass index (BMI) percentile. Association between obesity and final asthma score was estimated by chi- square test using SPSS software and p-value set at 0.005. RESULTS: The mean age was 10.13 +/- 2.54 years (ranged 5 to 14), and the majority, 46 (71.88%), were boys. Most of the participants, 46 (71.88%), were normal to underweight and 18 (28.13%) were overweight or obese. Most of the children, 35 (54.69%), complained of cough because of asthma sometimes. Out of 64 participants, 21 (32.81%) had uncontrolled asthma, and 43 (67.19%) had controlled asthma calculated using a questionnaire. Out of 46 nonobese children with asthma, 7 (15.22%) had uncontrolled asthma, and out of 18 obese children with asthma, 14 (77.78%) had uncontrolled asthma, and the difference in the proportion of Asthma severity was significant statistically across the groups (p-value < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Poor control of asthma symptoms was significantly higher in both obese and normal- weight children with asthma.