Diseases Concomitant With Asthma in Middle-Aged and Elderly Subjects in Korea: A Population-Based Study

Abstract

PurposeAsthma is prevalent in many countries. Few studies have investigated the association between asthma and concomitant diseases. We retrospectively analyzed the fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey database, performed in 2008 using nationwide stratified random sampling to obtain a representative cohort of the Korean population.MethodsWe evaluated the association between both self-reported ever-asthmatics and wheezers and concomitant diseases such as arthritis, hypertension, gastrointestinal (GI) ulcers, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, rhinitis, depression, stroke, and obesity in subjects aged ≥40 years. A multivariate analysis was performed to identify concomitant diseases independently associated with asthma, after adjustment for age, gender, income, cigarette smoking, and other chronic diseases.ResultsOf the total of 4,445 subjects, 2,596 (58.4%) were female and the mean age was 58.3 years. Of the 4,445 subjects, 195 (4.4%) had been diagnosed with asthma at some point, and 444 (10%) were wheezers. Multivariate analysis showed that arthritis (odds ratio [OR] 1.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.26-2.42), rhinitis (OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.14-2.78), depression (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.05-2.07), and obesity (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.08-2.40) were significantly associated with self-reported ever-asthma, and arthritis (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.19-1.909), hypertension (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.07-1.67), GI ulcers (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.05-2.08), rhinitis (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.16-2.19), depression (OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.51-2.48), and obesity (OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.17-2.09) were significantly associated with wheezers.ConclusionsThese findings indicate that arthritis, rhinitis, depression, and obesity may be associated with both self-reported ever asthma and wheezers in the Korean population.

Insulin and the Lung: Connecting Asthma and Metabolic Syndrome

“…Such a relationship is also seen between asthma and other markers of the metabolic syndrome such as insulin resistance and hypertension that cannot be accounted for by increased body mass alone [4–7]. While both obesity and asthma are individually associated with an increased state of inflammation [8], interestingly, in obese asthmatics, there is a dissociation between cellular inflammation and severity of symptoms, especially in women [9, 10].…”

Chronic airway-induced allergy in mice modifies gene expression in the brain toward insulin resistance and inflammatory responses

“…Asthma is associated with DT2 and obesity [37,38], both of which are metabolic disorders with an underlying systemic inflammatory profile. Together with our data, this suggests that systemic inflammation associated with allergy may modify insulin signaling in the brain, which could have consequences for brain function and the pathophysiology of some neurodegenerative disorders.…”

Comorbid Diseases in Adult Asthma

“…The article in the issue evaluated comorbid diseases in asthma and demonstrated that arthritis, rhinitis, depression and obesity were independently associated with both self-reported asthma and wheezing in adults older than 40 years of age 4. These results were statistically supported because the authors adjusted for confounding factors and other chronic diseases compared to previous studies.…”

“…At least five phenotypes of asthma have been proposed 7. In the article in the issue,4 asthma was described as a disease characterized by eosinophilic and Th2 type inflammation. However, it is now known that inflammation in asthma is actually more complex.…”