Asthma patients with obesity are at a greater risk of experiencing near-fatal asthma events than those asthma patients without obesity. These findings from a new study were presented at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology held last month in San Antonio, Texas.¹

Mayo Clinic researchers carried out a retrospective analysis of data of 677,591 asthma patients with an exacerbation from 2005 to 2014. Data was sourced from the National Inpatient Sample. Their aim was to determine if obesity (BMI ≥30) was a risk factor for fatal or near-fatal asthma events among patients with an exacerbation. Near-fatal asthma event was defined as an asthma exacerbation leading to tracheostomy, respiratory and/or cardiac arrest. The mean age of the participants was 47 years and two-thirds of the patients were women.

A total of 125,095 (18%) patients had obesity; 936 (0.14%) near-fatal asthma events and 2538 (0.37%) all-cause deaths were recorded.

Patients with obesity had a longer mean duration of hospitalization (4.2 days) compared to those who did not have obesity (3.5 days). Among patients with obesity, 201 (0.2%) near-fatal asthma events occurred compared to 735 (0.1%) such events among those without obesity. Among patients with obesity, the mean total direct costs were also higher versus patients without obesity; $24,550 vs $18,973, respectively.

Asthma patients with obesity have greater probability of being hospitalized because of asthma exacerbations. This study illustrates the high incidence of worse outcomes among asthma patients with obesity with longer hospitalizations and increased risk of respiratory and/or cardiac arrest. Heart disease or diabetes patients or persons with cardiometabolic risk factors are advised to maintain a healthy body weight to reduce their risk of suffering an acute cardiac event. Similarly, asthma patients with obesity should be counselled to reduce their body weight to reduce the risk of associated morbidity and mortality.

Reference

1. Mueller K, et al. Obesity is a risk factor for worse asthma exacerbation outcomes in the United States. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2023 Feb.;151(2 Suppl): AB72. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2022.12.227