title: Smoking and asthma in men and women with normal weight, overweight, and obesity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a complex interrelationship among smoking, body weight, and asthma. It needs to be clarified whether smoking is related to an increased risk of asthma after taking into account for relative body weight.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the association between cigarette smoking and the prevalence of asthma in Canadian men and women with normal weight, overweight, and obesity.
  
  
  METHODS
  The analysis was based on data from 112,830 Canadians aged 18 years or more who participated in a national survey in 2007-2008. A questionnaire covered the information on prevalent asthma, smoking status, height, weight, and other factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association between smoking and the prevalence of asthma stratified by sex and body mass index (BMI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The crude prevalence of asthma was 6.6% for men and 9.3% for women. After adjustment for covariates, the odds ratios (ORs) for current smoking associated with asthma was 1.20 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01-1.43] for men with normal weight, 0.98 (95% CI: 0.81, 1.18) for overweight men, and 1.02 (95% CI: 0.80-1.30) for obese men. For women, the corresponding adjusted ORs were 1.41 (95% CI: 1.23-1.62), 1.27 (95% CI: 1.05-1.54), and 1.28 (95% CI: 1.03-1.59), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Current smoking was significantly associated with prevalent asthma in all women regardless of their relative body weight. In men, however, the association was only observed in those with under- or normal weight.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. ychen@uottawa.ca
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiao-Mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Mai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000886:Anthropometry; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult