title: Obesity and asthma: association or epiphenomenon?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To relate obesity and asthma by comparing gender, age, initial classification of asthma, clinical control, basal forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced expiratory flow between 25 and 75% (FEF25-75%) with rates of body mass index (BMI) in asthmatic adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study involving 120 asthmatics patients (1.9 male: 1 female) with a mean age of 14.1 years (9 to 20.1 years of age), classified according to asthma severity and control, and evaluated by spirometry using their basal FEV1 and FEF25-75%. The data were described by frequency, mean and standard deviation or median and range and analyzed by ANOVA, unpaired t test, Fischer's exact test, Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson's correlation, considering significant p<0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no difference between gender in relation to the initial classification and the level of asthma control; 91.7% (100 cases) received initial classification as persistent and 106 cases (88.3%) were partially or totally controlled. There was no statistical difference between controlled patients and the others in relation to BMI. No significant correlations were found between zBMI and FEV1 and between zBMI and FEF25-75%, analyzing all patients and only patients with overweight or obese.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, no significant correlation was found between overweight/obesity and asthma using clinical, anthropometric and spirometric parameters.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Pediatria, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP), São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Larissa Smiljanic
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.forename: Andrea Cristina T B
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: Tatiana Moraes
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Cauduro
authors.forename: Letícia Aki
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Ana Paula B M
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Cristina Miuki A
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.forename: Antonio Carlos
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Pastorino
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001249:Asthma / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005540:Forced Expiratory Flow Rates; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult