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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Excess pounds may increase the likelihood of being hospitalized for a severe asthma attack, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among more than 400 patients who were seen in the emergency department for an asthma attack, those who were overweight or obese tended to have longer emergency department stays and were more likely to be admitted to the hospital.
After being treated in the emergency department, 14 percent of overweight patients had to be hospitalized, versus 7 percent of normal-weight patients, the study found.
The findings suggest that overweight adults may tend to have more severe asthma than their normal-weight counterparts, according to lead researcher Dr. Gustavo J. Rodrigo, of the Hospital Central de las FF.AA in Montevideo, Uruguay.
It's also possible that overweight asthmatics perceive symptoms of breathlessness as more severe, he told Reuters Health.
Rodrigo and colleague Dr. Vicente Plaza report the findings in the medical journal Chest.
In the study, the researchers evaluated 426 adults with asthma who came to the emergency department over a 2-year period. All of the patients received albuterol, an inhaled medication used to prevent and treat asthma attacks, and intravenous hydrocortisone, a steroid. Patients with a decline in the blood oxygen levels of more than 8 percent also received oxygen.
Overall, both normal-weight and overweight patients responded similarly to treatment, based on objective measures of lung function, Rodrigo said. However, overweight patients' symptoms, mainly wheezing, tended to persist longer -- which is likely the main reason for their higher rate of hospitalization, he explained.
Whether overweight asthmatics perceive their symptoms differently, or whether their underlying airway dysfunction is actually more severe, is not clear, the researchers say.
Rodrigo said that for anyone suffering an asthma exacerbation, objective measures of lung function -- specifically, peak expiratory flow and forced expiratory volume -- should be done upon emergency department arrival, shortly after treatment and then at regular follow-up visits.
This, he explained, gives an objective picture of both the general severity of the asthma and how well a person is responding to therapy.
SOURCE: Chest, November 2007.
