Obesity can influence children’s and adolescents’ airway hyperresponsiveness differently

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of 799 patients

	*Underweight*	*Normal weight*	*Overweight*	*Obese*	*All*	p
All subjects n. (%)	144 (18.02)	526 (65.83)	90 (12.39)	40 (5)	799 (100)	< 0.001
Males n. (%)	78 (14.57)	360 (67.29)	70 (13.08)	26 (4.85)	535 (100)	0.001
Females n. (%)	66 (25.98)	165 (64.96)	20 (7.87)	13 (5.11)	264 (100)	0.001
Age (mean ± SD)	12 ± 4*° ^#	15 ± 3*	16 ± 2°	16 ± 2^#	15 ± 3	< 0.001
Children, age (mean ± SD)	9.9 ± 2.3	11.1 ± 2*	11.8 ± 1.4*	10.7 ± 1.5	10.8 ± 1.9	0.0001
Adolescents, age (mean ± SD)	16.1 ± 1.3	16.5 ± 1.4	16.7 ± 1.4	16.6 ± 1.3	16.4 ± 1.4	0.126
Smokers n. (%)	7 (7.7%)	68 (16.2%)	17 (22.1%)	4 (12.9%)	96 (15.5%)	0.069
Subjects with normal reactivity n. (%)	47 (32.6%)	179 (33.7%)	31 (34.4%)	6 (17.6%)	263 (32.9%)	0.279
Hyperrea ctive subjects (PD₂₀< 2400 μg) n. (%)	97 (67.4%)	352 (66.3%)	59 (65.6%)	28 (82.4%)	536 (67.1%)	0.279
FEV ₁ %	99.31 [88.58-108.15]*° ^#	102.53 [94.28-111.87]*	104.47 [94.48-114.61]°	105.41 [95.48-113.14]^#	101.94 [93.46-111.95]	0.005
FVC %	90.1 [82.64-98.29]*° ^#	96.67 [88.22-105.12]*	99.24 [90.97-109.74]°	99.71 [90.21-109.50]^#	95.89 [87.46-104.28]	< 0.001
FEV ₁ /FVC	93.90 [8.51-97.56]*° ^#	90.88 [86.47-95.04]*	89.15 [84.16-93.96]°	89.23 [85.73-93.44]^#	91.07 [86.17-95.38]	< 0.001
BMI	17.15 [16.28-17.91]	21.36 [19.97-22.83]	26.51 [25.65-27.76]	32.45 [31.25-35.57]	21.23 [19.15-23.61]	< 0.001

FEV₁, forced expiratory volume in one second; FVC, forced vital capacity; BMI, body mass index. The continuous variables are median (interquartile range [IQR]) or mean ± standard deviation and categorical values are expressed as number of cases (percentage). Mean comparisons were made with the ANOVA test; median comparisons were made with the Kruskal-Wallis test; proportion comparisons were made with the χ² test; post hoc analysis was made by the Bonferroni correction.*° ^# statistically significant differences between groups when they were compared.

ISSN: 2049-6958