Obesity Linked to Respiratory Symptoms in Adults and Asthma and COPD in Women

In a study on abdominal and general obesity and respiratory symptoms, obesity was linked to adverse respiratory symptoms in adults, and asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) in women, but not in men.

“The main result of this study was that both general and abdominal obesity were independently associated with respiratory symptoms in adults,” wrote the researchers of this study. “However, asthma and COPD were significantly associated with abdominal and general obesity in women only.”

The results of this cross-sectional study were published in Respiratory Medicine.

Obesity is a known risk factor for chronic respiratory diseases and higher prevalence of exacerbations, with asthma and COPD being leading causes of death worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the association between abdominal and general obesity with respiratory symptoms, asthma and COPD in adult men and women.

This study included patient data from the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) III questionnaire, consisting of 12,290 individuals from 2010 to 2012. The questionnaire included yes or no questions such as ‘Have you had an asthma attack in the last 12 months?’ and ‘Do you usually cough up mucus in the chest that is hard to get out?’

In addition, body mass index (BMI) was self-reported, with general obesity defined as BMI 30kg/m² or greater, and abdominal obesity was defined as a waist circumference (WC) of 102cm or more for men and 88cm or more for women.

Lastly, the researchers considered other confounding factors, such as smoking status, educational attainment, and physical activity, in their analysis.

Results showed that 4261 (34.7%) of participants had abdominal obesity and 1837 (6.7%) of participants had general obesity. Additionally, there were 1669 (13.6%) participants with both abdominal and general obesity.

More women had abdominal obesity than men, while more men had general obesity than women. Furthermore, participants with general and abdominal obesity were more likely to be older, former smokers, with lower educational attainment and physical activity.

Both abdominal and general obesity were found independent of one another and associated with respiratory symptoms, odds ratio (OR) from 1.25 to 2.00 in both adult women and men.

Asthma was significantly associated with abdominal obesity (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.30-1.87; P = .052) and general obesity (OR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.56-2.43; P = .006), respectively, in women, but not in men.

Similarly, COPD was significantly associated with abdominal obesity (OR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.15-2.28; P = .02) and general obesity (OR, 2.87; 95% CI, 2.00-4.10; P = .001), respectively, in women, but not in men.

Although this study was based on a self-reported questionnaire, the researchers believe that their results provide a clearer picture when treating adult patients with respiratory symptoms.

“The clinical relevance of this study is that measuring WC in addition to height and weight can be important when seeing patients with respiratory symptoms,” wrote the researchers. “We conclude that both general and abdominal obesity was independent of each other associated with respiratory symptoms in adults. However, for self-reported asthma and COPD, a significant association with abdominal and general obesity was found in women but not men.”

Reference

Kisiel MA, Arnfelt O, Lindberg E, et al. Association between abdominal and general obesity and respiratory symptoms, asthma and COPD. results from the Rhine study. Respiratory Medicine. 2023;211:107213. doi:10.1016/j.rmed.2023.107213