title: Obesity and asthma: an association modified by age.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Some studies indicate some causal relationship between obesity and asthma, while others show inconsistent results. Our objective was to evaluate the prevalence of asthma according to obesity in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study, following the ISAAC study methodology, was conducted on two randomly selected groups consisting of 6-7 year-old children (n=7485) and 13-14 year-old adolescents (n=8496). The asthma symptoms and potential risk factors were determined from the questionnaire. Overweight and obesity were defined based on the body mass index. Multiple logistic regression was used to obtain adjusted prevalence odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Obesity was associated with an increase in wheezing ever (OR: 1.35) and exercise-induced asthma (OR: 1.62) in the 6-7 year-old group. No significant relationship was observed in the adolescent population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Obesity was associated with a higher prevalence of asthma in young children, but not in adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Disease, Clinic Universitary Hospital, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. fjgbarcala@telefonica.net
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Barcala
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pertega
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Perez-Castro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sampedro
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Lastres
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: San-Jose-Gonzalez
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bamonde
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garnelo
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Valdés-Cuadrado
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Moure
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Carreira
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lopez-Silvarrey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D001250:Asthma, Exercise-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology; D002415:Cats; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004285:Dogs; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D057805:Pets; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution