An Observational Study to Assess the Prevalence and Impact of Obesity in Asthma Management

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of obesity among asthmatic patients and their clinical profile to the treatment there by managing asthma among obese patients and to evaluate sex differences in the relationship between asthma and obesity in adult asthmatic patients. Methodology: A prospective study was conducted among the outpatients of pulmonology department for a period of 6 months duration in a tertiary care referral hospital. 100 asthmatic patients above 18 years of age were enrolled from Malabar region of Kerala, India in order to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacist intervention in reducing the asthma severity, Exacerbation and No: of hospitalization. Results: The total number of patients involved in the study was 100. Out of these 37% was found to be obese (class I and class II). Fischer’s exact test was performed and p value was found to be <0.01 that shows there is a significant difference in PFR between obese and non-obese asthmatic patients. Nearly two-fifth of the non-obese patients suffering from asthma had improvement, where as one-third of the obese patients with asthma had no improvement.70% of the study population had poor lung function ( FEV 1/FVC) < 0.75 ) and 30% of the study population had normal lung function (FEV1 ≥ 0.75). Conclusion: In conclusion, our prospective study provides the first evidence demonstrating an association between obesity and asthma in adult male and female patient. Elevated BMI, particularly obesity is associated with subsequent poor asthma control, especially in the risk domain (exacerbation). These findings further support the importance of facilitating weight loss in overweight and obese adults with asthma. The incidence of both asthma and obesity conditions has been increasing and they share common risk factors. Obesity and asthma due to its unique relation has emerged as a different phenotype of asthma.