Childhood obesity as a determinant of asthma prevalence in children

¶ … childhood obesity and asthma; is asthma more prevalent when obesity is a presenting factor?

The following is the abstract from one of the sources that I would propose to use in my research. von Kries, Hermann, Grunert, & von Mutius (2001), stated in adolescents and adults, an association between obesity and asthma was found in females. Does this sex-specific association already exist in young children? METHODS: Questionnaire data on 9357 5- and 6-year-old German children were collected in 1997 in two rural regions in Bavaria. The diagnosis of asthma, hay fever, and eczema was ascertained with the ISAAC core and other validated questions. Overweight was defined by a BMI of >90th and < or =97th percentile and obesity by a BMI of >97th percentile. RESULTS: The lifetime prevalence of doctor's diagnosed asthma in girls was 3.5% (95%, CI 2.9-4.1%) for normal weight, 5.8% (95% CI 3.2-8.4%) for overweight, and 10.3% (95% CI 5.3-15.2%) for obesity, whereas no relation to weight was found in boys. Hay fever and eczema were unrelated to weight in girls and boys. The adjusted odds ratio for asthma in girls was 2.12 (95% CI 1.22-3.68) for overweight and 2.33 (95% CI 1.13-4.82) for obesity. CONCLUSIONS: A sex-specific association with doctor's diagnosed asthma was also observed in girls at school entry. Since this association was confined to doctor's diagnosed asthma in the absence of other atopic conditions, and no association with other atopic manifestations was found, we hypothesize that this association is related to factors other than atopic sensitization.

This article gives further support to my hypothesis: The article throws light on the relationship between asthma and obesity. Health care providers have explained this association as evidence that children with asthma are less likely to engage in physical activity and therefore, more prone to gain weight. The findings have important health implications in the battle to control the epidemics of both asthma and obesity in children. Further, longitudinal epidemiological studies are necessary to confirm to identify all causes of childhood asthma epidemic (Phelps, 2004).

Shaheen (1999),Discusses the increasing body of epidemiological evidence concerning the association between obesity and asthma in individuals. Risk factors for childhood asthma; Possible importance of a more sedentary lifestyle in developed countries; Environmental causes of asthma.

This article reports on the challenges facing a planned national study on children's health in the U.S. As of May 2005. The largest study of children's health is on course to make discoveries that could improve health for generations to come, according to its planners, including the possibility of new treatments and life-saving prevention strategies. However, proposed flat funding levels could slow the progress of the study. Created by the Children's Health Act of 2000, the National Children's Study will follow the health and development of 100,000 children from before birth until age 21, focusing on the links between environment and health. The study, led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, hopes to identify the root causes of various childhood diseases and disabilities and uncover how a broad array of environmental factors impact development. In addition, the study is predicted to shed light on costly conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and obesity. Planning for the study began in 2000 and eventually gathered input from almost 2,500 professionals. Currently, the study is in the process of establishing a clinical coordinating center as well as the initial implementation sites, which are called vanguard centers (Krisberg, 2005).

The reason that these articles listed would be used is because they talk directly about the problem for which I am doing research. All of my sources were found using databases like EBSCO. To locate the desired information I entered the necessary search criteria i.e. childhood obesity and asthma, then I entered that I wanted journal articles and search for related terms.