Obesity Among 7-Year Olds Poses Higher Asthma Risks

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A new study reveals that kids who are obese or overweight during the early part of their childhood face a higher risk of experiencing asthma at the age of 8 compared to kids who weigh normally.

Swedish researchers followed the lives of more than 2,000 kids for eight years and used preschool as well as school health records to keep an eye on their weight and height from age 18 months, 1 year, 4 years and 7 years.

Questionnaires were also completed by parents with regards to the health of their children that included their allergy and asthma condition.

Kids who showed a persistent increase in their body mass index or BMI (85th percentile or above)  all through their early childhood or those who had a normal weight when they were toddlers but experienced an increase in weight and had an increased BMI at 7 years old were highly likely to contract asthma compared to kids who weighed normally.

However, children who had increased BMI at 18 months or at age 4 (but had slimmed down at age 7) were not at risk for asthma.

The study’s lead author, Jessica Magnusson (an Institute of Environmental Medicine Ph.D. student in Stockholm) claims that children who are overweight during the early childhood period prior to age 4 do not have an increased asthma risk when they reach school age. She also adds that if kids are continuously overweight by age 7, there is a risk of asthma by age 8.

Asthma occurs once the airways are inflamed thus causing coughing, wheezing, breathing trouble and chest tightness.

Researchers included in their findings parental asthma history. Increased BMI was also connected to a high asthma risk on children with no parental history of the said disease. They also point out that the study does not verify that being obese automatically causes asthma. However, there is a relation between being overweight and an increase in asthma rates causing a few people to theorize that the two could be biologically linked.

Source: Overweight 7- Year Olds Face Higher Risk of Asthma

 

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