Résumé
Background: Obesity and asthma in children are both increasing concomitantly with serious effects on health and quality of life. Obesity worsens the severity of asthma symptoms. Both, asthma and obesity have serious health consequences and significant financial costs. Assessment of body composition is important in understanding the relationship between obesity and asthma
Aim: This study was designed to evaluate body composition parameters in both obese and non-obeseasthmatic children and their effect on severity of asthma symptoms
Methods: A cross-sectional case-control study included 90 children divided into 3 equal groups including both males and females with an age range of [7-12] years; 30 non-obese asthmatics, 30 obese asthmatics from children attending allergy clinic at Abu-El Rish Pediatric Hospital, and 30 healthy controls. Complete history, clinical examination, anthropometric measurements; including: height, weight and body mass index, and body composition parameters including: fat mass, fat free mass, fat %, total body water, impedance and basal metabolic rate were taken
Results: Prevalence of both asthma and obesity was more among males with a male to female ratio-2: 1. Non-obese asthmatics were classified into 76.7% mild and 23.3% moderate cases. The obese asthmatics were classified into 30% mild, 60% moderate and 10% severe cases. The obese asthmatic group showed highly statistically significant differences compared to the non-obese asthmatic group: P< 0.005 regarding: weight, BMI, FM, FFM, IMP, TBW, BMR and in Fat% P< 0.05. The obese asthmatic group showed statistically significant differences compared to the control regarding weight, BMI, FM, FFM, IMP, TBW, BMR with [P< 0.005] and in the Fat% with [P<0.05]
Conclusion: Obesity aggravates the severity of asthma and body composition plays an important role as well