Background: Childhood asthma and obesity are both major public health concerns worldwide, and the prevalence of both diseases has risen markedly in the last several decades. There is growing evidence of an association between obesity and asthma, both in children and in adults. Abdominal obesity is also strongly associated with a metabolic syndrome (MS) and its components including; obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemic tendencies that is represented at the molecular level by insulin resistance and hyperinsulinism. In some studies using multivariate analysis, insulin resistance accounts for most of the obesity-associated asthma risk. Even maternal overweight seems to increase the risk of childhood asthma in predisposed children, suggesting systemic factors.
Objectives: The aim of the current study is to detect pre-clinical metabolic syndrome among obese asthmatic children & its propable reflection on their asthma protocol of management.
Patients and Methods: The current study is a cross sectional study including 60 asthmatic patients compared to 30 healthy subjects served as control group. The study lasted from December 2018 to September 2019 and took place at Allergy and Pulmonology Unit, Al-Hussein & Sayed Galal Hospitals, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University.
Results: The mean age of study group was 7.8+2.04 years, 40% males and 60% females and that was compatible in age and gender with control group their mean age was 5.7+1.79, 43.3% males and 56.7% females. Regardless of BMI percentile, children diagnosed with asthma were more likely than children without asthma to have higher SBP, DBP, MAP, HbA1c, and TG (P-value of < 0.001, 0.023, < 0.001, <0.001, <0.001 respectively) & lower HDL (P value of .05).
Overweight/obese children in the Childhood Asthma Management Program showed a decreased response to inhaled budesonide
Conclusion: The emerging interface between asthma and metabolic syndrome (MS) has strong foundations at the research level that gained attention in the last few years.
Keywords: Metabolic State, Obese Asthmatic Children.