Effect of overweight/obesity on the degree of asthma control in
children:A propensity score analysis
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively analyze the clinical
characteristics of overweight/obese children with asthma and their
influence on the degree of asthma control in outpatient clinics of
Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. METHODS:
Outpatient medical records of children with bronchial asthma attending
the outpatient clinic of the Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical
University from January 2021 to October 2022 were collected, and the
clinical characteristics of overweight/obese children with asthma and
their influence on the degree of asthma control were analyzed by the
propensity score method. Results: A total of 496 children with
bronchial asthma were included. 130 of the 496 children were
overweight/obese, 302 of the total population were male (60.9%), and
the ratio of male to female children was approximately 1.5:1. All
children were from the southwest region of China. The mean age of the
children in the total population was 6.10±0.20 years. The risk of poor
asthma control was 1.30 times higher in the overweight/obese population
compared to the non-obese/overweight population using traditional
logistic regression, with a 95% CI of 0.82-2.05. Logistic regression
models were constructed using propensity score methods to balance
confounding factors, i.e. propensity score weighting and propensity
score matching methods, all of which consistently concluded that
overweight/obesity was positively associated with asthma control.
Obesity was positively associated with asthma control, with the
propensity score weighting method yielding an OR=1.2, 95% CI=0.92-1.57
and the propensity score matching method yielding an OR of 1.09, 95%
CI=0.61-1.97. Conclusion: Being overweight/obese has an impact
on the degree of control in children with asthma, and overweight/obese
children are at higher risk of poor asthma control.