The following is a summary of “Association between abdominal and general obesity and respiratory symptoms, asthma and COPD. Results from the RHINE study,” published in the March 2023 issue of Pulmonology by Kisiel, et al.

Inconsistent findings have emerged from prior research examining the correlation between respiratory disease and abdominal and general obesity. Therefore, for a study, researchers aimed to investigate the relationship between abdominal obesity and respiratory symptoms, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) independent of general obesity in both women and men. 

To accomplish this, we conducted a cross-sectional study using the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) III questionnaire (n = 12,290) in 2010-2012. Abdominal obesity was determined by self-measured waist circumference, with a sex-specific standard cut-off point of ≥102 cm in males and ≥88 cm in females. General obesity was defined as a self-reported BMI ≥30.0 kg/m².

The findings showed that out of the 4,261 subjects with abdominal obesity, 63% were women, while 50% of the 1,837 subjects with general obesity were women. Abdominal and general obesity were independent and associated with respiratory symptoms, with odds ratios (OR) ranging from 1.25 to 2.00. Asthma was significantly linked to both abdominal and general obesity in women, with OR (95% CI) of 1.56 (1.30-1.87) and 1.95 (1.56-2.43), respectively. However, no significant association was observed in men, with OR of 1.22 (0.97-3.17) and 1.28 (0.97-1.68), respectively. A similar sex-specific disparity was found for self-reported COPD.

In conclusion, the study showed that general and abdominal obesity were independent risk factors for adult respiratory symptoms. Additionally, abdominal and general obesity was independently linked to asthma and COPD in women but not in men.

Reference: resmedjournal.com/article/S0954-6111(23)00101-4/fulltext