Table 1.

Highlighted studies on obesity and asthma inception during late childhood and adolescence

Reference	Study population	Study design	Main findings	Notes
Romieu et al8	7851 children aged 2–16 years	Retrospective analysis of NHANES III dataset, cross-sectional data, BMI measured, asthma defined by parent report	Asthma risk OR 3.44 (95% CI 1.49–7.96) for BMI > 95th percentile compared with BMI 25th–49th percentile	Controlled for dietary intake, physical activity, sociodemographic factors
Wickens et al9	894 children aged 11–12 years	Cross-sectional study, BMI measured, asthma defined by parent report	BMI standard deviation score positively associated with wheezing ever, wheeze in the last 12 months, asthma controller medication use	New Zealand population
Castro-Rodriguez et al10	1246 children enrolled in birth cohort between 1980 and 1984	Prospective birth cohort study	Females who became overweight or obese between the ages of 6 and 11 years were seven times more likely to develop new asthma symptoms at age 11 (P = 0.0002)	Tuscon Children’s Respiratory Study. Same relationship not seen in males
Gold et al11	9828 children aged 6–14 years	Prospective cohort study	Girls in the top quintile of BMI at entry and top quintile of BMI change during 5-year follow-up period were more likely to have asthma (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.05–4.78 and 2.20, 95% CI 1.13–4.28)	Adjusted for study site, race, age, parental education, maternal smoking, single parent family. Relationship not seen in boys
Flaherman and Rutherford15	Meta-analysis of four studies, including 15,703 children	Meta-analysis	High bodyweight during middle childhood RR 1.5 for subsequent asthma (95% CI 1.2–1.8)	BMI ≥ 85th percentile for age compared with <85th percentile reference group
Gilliland et al17	3792 children without asthma in 4th, 7th, and 10th grades at enrollment	Prospective cohort study, annual assessments for 4 years	New onset asthma risk higher in overweight (RR 1.52, 95% CI 1.14–2.03) or obese (RR 1.60, 95% CI 1.08–2.36)	Stronger relationship in nonallergic children
Ho et al18	4052 adolescents aged 13–15 years with asthmalike symptoms at enrollment	Prospective cohort study, 12-month follow-up	Physician-diagnosed asthma during the follow-up period was higher in girls who were overweight at enrollment (OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.18–2.61)	No significant relationship seen in obese girls or overweight/obese boys

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; CI, confidence interval; NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; OR, odds ratio; RR, relative risk