Abstract
Objectives
It is unclear whether body weight status (underweight/normal weight/overweight/obese) is associated with allergic disease. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between body weight status (body mass index; BMI) and atopic allergic disease in prepubertal children, and to compare children with atopic allergic diseases with non atopic healthy children.
Methods
A prospective cross sectional study of 707 prepubertal children aged 3–10 years was performed; the participants were 278 atopic children with physician-diagnosed allergic disease (allergic rhinitis and asthma) (serum total IgE level >100 kU/l and eosinophilia >4%, or positivity to at least one allergen in skin test) and 429 non atopic healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Data were collected between December 2019 and November 2020 at the Pediatric General and Pediatric Allergy Outpatient Clinics of Bezmialem Vakıf University Hospital.
Results
Underweight was observed in 11.6% of all participants (10.8% of atopic children, 12.2% of healthy controls), and obesity in 14.9% of all participants (18.0% of atopic children, 12.8% of controls). Obese (OR 1.71; 95% CI: 1.08–2.71, p=0.021), and overweight status (OR 1.62; 95% CI: 1.06–2.50, p=0.026) were associated with an increased risk of atopic allergic disease compared to normal weight in pre-pubertal children. This association did not differ by gender. There was no relationship between underweight status and atopic allergic disease (OR 1.03; 95% CI: 0.63–1.68, p=0.894).
Conclusions
Overweight and obesity were associated with an increased risk of atopic allergic disease compared to normal weight among middle-income and high-income pre pubertal children living in Istanbul.
Acknowledgements
The authors of this manuscript would like to thank the mothers and children who participated in the study.
Research funding: None declared.
Author contributions: AV designed the study. AV and FUK prepared the survey. AV, FUK, ZC and MAN collected data. Statistical analysis was done by AT. AV wrote the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed the manuscript.
Competing interest: All authors state they have no competitive (financial) interests in this study.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Ethical approval: Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Bezmialem Vakif University and documented in case file 2019-5/37. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.
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