Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity and Their Impact on Lung Function in Healthy Bulgarian Children and Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract

Background/Objectives: There is increasing evidence on the effect of obesity on lung function in children with and without respiratory diseases. The aim of was to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity and their impact on lung function parameters among healthy children. Methods: Six hundred and seventy-one healthy Bulgarian school children (339 males) aged 7-18 years were included in the study. All participants completed anthropometric measurements, including standing height, weight, and BMI. The studied group underwent comprehensive pulmonary function assessment. Results: The overweight and obese children group consisted of 131-overweight, 97, and obese, 34, children, accounting for 19.5% or every fifth child. The highest prevalence of overweight was at the ages of 10, 11, 12 and 17 years, and that of obesity was 7, 10 and 14 years, respectively. We compared normal weight, overweight and obese children in every age group and found that an increase in weight was associated with increased height and increased lung function parameters, such as FVC, FEV₁, PEF, and FEF₅₀. To overcome the effect of height, we compared normal weight and overweight obese children in height groups and found nonsignificant differences in the spirometric indices. Only in the 130-139 cm group the obese children had lower values of FEV₁(L): 1.78 ± 0.13 vs. 1.91 ± 0.19 (NS) in children with normal weight. Conclusions: The increase in weight is associated with height growth, and the same pattern is observed for the mean spirometry indices, with lowest values found only in obese 7-year-old children.