Quantifying the Contribution of Obesity to Incident Childhood Asthma: It's About Time.

Abstract

Several studies in the past 15 years have reported a link between obesity and asthma, 2 of the most common chronic pediatric diseases. As we have understood these associations better, there has been recognition of 2 mechanistically distinct types of pediatric obesity–related asthma, one in which asthma precedes obesity1 and the other in which obesity precedes asthma.2 However, the incidences of these types of pediatric obesity–related asthma are not known. In the current issue of Pediatrics , Lang et al3 address this gap in knowledge and report a risk of 23% to 28% of new asthma cases attributable to obesity among children residing in the United States. This study has many strengths.3 Access to detailed data in the PEDSnet system,4 which includes clinical and medical claims data collected longitudinally on a quarterly basis from 8 large pediatric health systems in the United States, allowed the authors to conduct a stringent analysis of asthma diagnosis using different definitions routinely used in asthma research. They included children that were diagnosed in 1 clinical … Address correspondence to Deepa Rastogi, MBBS, MS, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 3415 Bainbridge Ave, Bronx, NY 10467. E-mail: drastogi{at}montefiore.org