Asthma and obesity comorbidity in a group of Italian children and adolescents

Recent studies have reported an association between overweight/obesity and asthma in children, and a possible cause-effect relationship between the two conditions was supposed. To determine whether obesity is more prevalent in asthmatics than in non-asthmatics and to examine, in the asthmatic group, the relationship between BMI level variability and sex, age, asthma characteristics, 554 asthmatic subjects and 625 controls, aged 2.1-16.2 years, were studied. The frequency of overweight/obesity in asthmatic children and adolescents is similar to that in the rest of population, even if a frequent comorbidity is observed. A relationship was found between the variability of BMI and respiratory tract infections and use of IGCs. It seems to be necessary a preventive surveillance of BMI in asthmatics and to limit the use of inhaled steroids in those children who begin to show large increase in BMI or have a family history of obesity.