The association between asthma risk and obesity, with or without metabolic syndrome: Findings from Korean NHANES Data

초록

Rationale Obesity increases risk of asthma; however, whether metabolic syndrome (MS), with obesity being one of its five components, is also associated with increased asthma risk remains unclear. We investigated the association between risk of asthma and obesity, MS, and each component of MS. Methods We performed a cross-sectional study of 41,480 Korean adults using data from the 2007–2016 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Asthma was defined as a history of physician-diagnosed asthma or wheezing sound within the past 12 months. Results The adjusted OR for asthma was significantly increased in participants with obesity (OR, 1.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27–1.33; P <.0001) and MS (OR, 1.23; CI, 1.20–1.25; P <.0001). Obesity and MS showed an additive effect (OR, 1.38; CI, 1.34–1.41; P <0.001), followed by obesity(+)MS(−) (OR, 1.28; CI, 1.25–1.31; P <0.001) and obesity(−)MS(+) (OR, 1.14; CI, 1.10–1.18; P <0.001). Among each metabolic component, only abdominal obesity (OR, 1.28; CI, 1.24–1.32; P <0.001) and hypertension (OR, 1.16; CI, 1.12–1.20; P <0.001) significantly increased risk of asthma. Unlike females (OR, 1.39; CI, 1.35–1.43; P <0.001), having MS showed a lower risk of asthma in males (OR, 0.79; CI, 0.75–0.82; P <0.001). Conclusions Risk of asthma was highest when both obesity and MS were present, followed by obesity alone and MS alone. Abdominal obesity and hypertension were associated increased asthma risk, and there was a gender difference that MS lowered risk of asthma in Korean males.