to determine the prevalence of asthma risk associated with anthropometric indicators of excess weight and body fat distribution.
cross-sectional study including adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age. The anthropometric indicator used to classify excess weight was the body mass index (BMI-Z); those used for abdominal adiposity were waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and the conicity index (CI). Asthma characteristics were evaluated using the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. The significance level was 5%, and the analyses were performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 18.0.
adolescent students (n = 1362; 788 [57.9%] female) with a mean age of 15.65 ± 1.24 years were evaluated. A high prevalence of asthma, excess weight (BMI-Z) and excess abdominal adiposity (WC and WHtR) was observed in the females. Only CI values for excess abdominal adiposity were higher for males than for females. Adolescents with excess abdominal adiposity, as shown by the WHtR, had a 1.24 times higher risk of having asthma compared with non-obese adolescents. Boys with excess abdominal adiposity, as classified by CI, presented a 1.8 times greater risk of asthma. The risk of severe asthma was 3 times higher among adolescents who were classified as severely obese via the BMI-Z.
this study showed that excess body weight and abdominal obesity are associated with an increased risk of asthma and asthma severity in adolescents. Thus, additional BMI measurements are suggested for asthmatics.
