Sex Specificity of Asthma Associated With Objectively Measured Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference: The Humboldt Study

doi:10.1378/chest.128.4.3048

Chest

Volume 128, Issue 4, October 2005, Pages 3048-3054

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.128.4.3048 Get rights and content

Study objective

To investigate the possibility of sex specificity for the association of obesity and asthma using objective measures of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC).

Design

Cross-sectional study of adults (n = 2,057) living in Humboldt, SK, Canada in 2003.

Setting

A rural community.

Measurements

Ever-asthma was defined as lifetime physician-diagnosed asthma, and recent asthma was defined as asthma diagnosed by a physician during the past 12 months. BMI and WC were objectively measured.

Results

Among the participants, 5.6% of men and 10.0% of women reported having ever-asthma, and 2.7% and 6.0% had recent asthma, respectively. Higher levels of both BMI and WC were significantly associated with asthma in women but not in men. The adjusted odds ratios for women with a BMI of at least 30.0 kg/m² relative to women with a BMI of < 25.0 kg/m² were 2.06 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.42 to 4.05) for ever-asthma and 3.47 (95% CI, 1.64 to 7.32) for recent asthma.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrated that the increased risk of asthma associated with obesity was only significant in women but not in men even when BMI was objectively measured, and this association was robust to the anthropometric measures.

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted in the town of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, in 2003. The target population of the study was all the town residents ≥ 6 years old and was conducted among children (6 to 17 years old) and adults (18 to 79 years old), separately. This analysis was based on data from 2,057 adult residents 18 to 79 years old, who represented 71% of the target population. Almost all of the study population were white.

Humboldt is a service center, and agriculture is the main

Results

The prevalences of both ever-asthma and recent asthma were higher in women (10.0% and 6.0%) than in men (5.7% and 2.7%, respectively). Obesity was prevalent in this rural town, with 38.2% of men and 33.7% of women having a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m². The mean of BMI was 29.2 kg/m² for men and 28.4 kg/m² for women. Seventy-four men (8.3%) and 120 women (10.3%) refused to have their WC measured, and their average BMIs were similar when compared to the overall averages (Table 1), suggesting that overweight or

Discussion

In this study, we used objectively measured BMI to define overweight (BMI 25.0 to 29.9 kg/m²) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m²) and found that both overweight and obesity were associated with an increased risk of recent asthma and that obesity was significantly associated with an increased risk of ever-asthma in women. These results are consistent with two previous Canadian studies.⁷⁸ Based on data from a representative Canadian population, Chen et al⁷⁸ found that obesity defined by self-reported

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View all citing articles on Scopus

This study was supported be a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 200203MOP-100752-POP-CCAA-11829.

Dr. Chen currently holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Investigator Award.

Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (www.chestjournal.org/misc/reprints.shtml).

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Chest

Preliminary ReportSex Specificity of Asthma Associated With Objectively Measured Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference: The Humboldt Study

Study objective

Design

Setting

Measurements

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

Results

Discussion

Chest

Am J Clin Nutr

Ann Epidemiol

J Pediatr

Am J Clin Nutr

Am J Cardiol

Chest

J Clin Epidemiol

Chest

Chest

J Clin Epidemiol

Prospective study of body mass index, weight change, and risk of adult-onset asthma in women

Arch Intern Med

Relationships between body mass index and well-being in young Australian women

Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord

Effect of obesity on asthma among adult Indian women

Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord

Body mass index, change in body silhouette, and risk of asthma in the E3N cohort study

Am J Epidemiol

Prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and obesity-related health risk factors, 2001

JAMA

Body mass index and asthma in the military population of the northwestern United States

Arch Intern Med

Increased effects of smoking and obesity on asthma among female Canadians: the National Population Health Survey, 1994–1995

Am J Epidemiol

Obesity may increase the incidence of asthma in women but not in men: longitudinal observations from the Canadian National Population Health Surveys

Am J Epidemiol

Asthma is associated with weight gain in females but not males, independent of physical activity

Am J Respir Crit Care Med

Birth weight, body mass index and asthma in young adults

Thorax

Body mass index and asthma among Mexican adults: the effect of using self-reported vs measured weight and height

Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord

The relationship between asthma symptoms and anthropometric markers of overweight in a Hispanic population

J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol

Preliminary Report
Sex Specificity of Asthma Associated With Objectively Measured Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference: The Humboldt Study