The prevalence of wheezing and its association with body mass index and abdominal obesity in children.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relative importance of body mass index (BMI) and abdominal obesity in the prevalence of wheezing in Brazilian children.


METHODS
This is a cross-sectional study of male and female students, 6-12 years old, from the public elementary schools of São Francisco do Conde, Bahia, Northeast Brazil. Reports of wheezing in the past 12 months were collected using a questionnaire from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood Program (ISAAC) phase III, adapted to Portuguese. Anthropometric, demographic, and socioeconomic information was collected. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess the associations of interest.


RESULTS
Of the children surveyed, 10.6% reported wheezing. Excess weight was observed in 16.2%, 10.5%, and 7.9% of the sample, measured by BMI, waist circumference (WC), and the waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), respectively. The percentage of patients with wheezing attributable to BMI ≥ 85th percentile (8.2%) slightly exceeded those identified with abdominal obesity, WC ≥ 80th percentile (7.3%) and WHtR > 0.5 (7.1%).


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that an excess of fat deposits, either in the abdominal region or elsewhere in the body, increased the risk of wheezing. Since obesity is an important public health problem worldwide, control of this problem may partially reduce the occurrence of wheezing in youth.
Departamento de Ciência da Nutrição, Escola de Nutrição, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil. rcrsilva@ufba.br
Rita de Cássia Ribeiro
Rde C
Silva
Ana Marlúcia Oliveira
AM
Assis
Marilda Souza
MS
Goncalves
Rosemeire Leovigildo
RL
Fiaccone
Sheila Maria Alvim
SM
Matos
Maurício Lima
ML
Barreto
Elizabete de Jesus
Ede J
Pinto
Luce Alves da
LA
Silva
Laura Cunha
LC
Rodrigues
Neuza Maria
NM
Alcantara-Neves
D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012135:Respiratory Sounds / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D055105:Waist Circumference