Asthma and overweight children

By Merill Haseen

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A NEW study shows that children have a higher risk of getting asthma if they are overweight.

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Scientists from King's College, London, studied 15,000 children, aged between four and 11, and found that 17 out of every 100 children were suffering from asthma, with the heaviest children most likely to be at risk.

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Researchers also found that in English inner cities, obese girls were more likely to suffer the condition than boys, a link not evident in other parts of the country or Scotland.

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The link between fatness and asthma was based on questionnaires filled in during 1993 and 1994. According to Sue Chinn, one of the researchers, it was a fairly recent phenomenon and had not been found in 1977 data. 'This suggests it is not directly causal. It is more likely to do with changing diets,' she said.
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Asthma is not limited to overweight children, said Dr Martyn Partridge, chief medical adviser for the National Asthma Campaign, and some could become fat because they aren't exercising.

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He said that if obesity caused asthma, improving the child's nutrition could help: 'We know, for example, that daily fruit can reduce the risk of lung disease,' he said.

• Exercise and asthma
  The link between asthma and obesity could become a vicious circle if parents stopped their children exercising because they were asthmatic. Good sports for asthmatics are swimming, yoga and team sports.

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• Obesity in children
  The UK is the fattest nation in Europe: 16% of two-year-olds and 20% of four-year-olds in this country are overweight. Long-term health implications include skin problems, early osteoporosis, heart and respiratory diseases, and some forms of cancer. Type 2 diabetes is also being seen in younger and younger people. Obese children will not have these problems when young: they are long-term consequences. The earlier a child becomes obese, the earlier the onset of these diseases.