Childhood Overweight and Obesity and Their Association With Asthma

Poor diet, decreased physical activity, and obesity are emerging as determinants that may be critical in the cause of asthma. The obesity epidemic is a worldwide problem affecting both developed and developing countries. The prevalence of obesity among US children and adolescents has tripled over the past 4 decades, and there is an all-time low in the level of physical activity among children and adolescents. Recent data show that the incidence of asthma has been climbing rapidly as well over these past 4 decades. An increasing body of literature suggests that there is an association between this parallel rise of obesity and asthma incidences. Although the exact nature of this association remains unclear, many investigators have interpreted the data to suggest that obesity both increases the risk of incident asthma and alters prevalent asthma toward a phenotype that is more difficult to control.