title: Obesity risk class and asthma outpatient service utilization by the middle aged and elderly in Taiwan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  According to the estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), there were about 300 million people in the world suffering from asthma in 2005. Among the risk factors of asthma is obesity, which was found to be significantly associated with asthma in recent decades.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this study, we analyze the relationship between obesity risk class and asthma outpatient service utilization by the middle-aged and elderly in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adopting data from the 2005 Nation Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), we first utilize latent class analysis (LCA) to identify obesity risk classes. Next, we utilize a logit and a negative binominal model to analyze the relationship between each obesity risk class and asthma outpatient service utilization.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results indicate that compared with the "overweight/obese with low consumption of vegetable/fruit and little exercise" class, the classes "normal-weight with high consumption of vegetable/fruit and moderate exercise" and "overweight/obese with high consumption of vegetable/fruit and moderate exercise" tend to have low probabilities and less number of visits of utilizing asthma outpatient services.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results may constitute useful references for clinicians and government policy makers formulating strategies for asthma management and prevention. Better informed strategies for asthma management could, in turn, increase the efficiency of asthmatic patients' care, which could provide efficient assistance to the target group based on the obesity risk classes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, College of Social Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan. Electronic address: whtian@mail.ncku.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Wei-Hua
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Institute of Gerontology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Li-Fan
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jiu-Yao
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009765:Obesity / Q000145:classification* / Q000628:therapy; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan
keywords: Asthma outpatient service utilization; Latent class analysis; Obesity