Table 2.

Highlighted studies on obesity and lung function

Reference	Study population	Study design	Main findings	Notes
Tantisira et al22	1041 children aged 5–12 years	Cross-sectional analyses of data collected during enrollment in a randomized controlled trial	Increasing BMI was associated with decreasing FEV1/FVC	No association found between BMI and other measures of asthma severity
Kattan et al23	368 adolescents aged 12–20 years	Analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial	BMI was positively associated with FEV1 in boys, and negatively associated with FEV1/FVC in boys and girls	Other measures of adiposity (percentage body fat) did not add additional information
Chen et al24	718 children aged 6–17 years	Cross-sectional study	Increased waist circumference was associated with decreased FEV1/FVC	No relationship seen between BMI and FEV1/FVC
Musaad et al25	1123 children aged 5–18 years followed in a specialty asthma clinic	Cross-sectional	Obesity measures explained 8%–24% of the variance in FEV1 in children with allergic rhinitis, and 2%–31% of the variance in children without allergic rhinitis	Obesity measures included BMI percentile, waist circumference, and conicity index. Adjusted for race, age, gender, and income

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; FEV₁, forced expiratory volume in I second; FVC, forced vital capacity.