Association of adult-onset asthma with specific cardiovascular conditions

While asthma is known to be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), the relation to specific manifestations of CVD has not been previously described. Our objective was to explore the relation of child and adult-onset asthma with specific CVD conditions.

We examined data from 16,943 (projected 178 million) U.S. adults aged 18-90 years old with relevant information on asthma and CVD. The study was a cross-sectional analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2006. We determined the prevalence of CVD risk factors and likelihood of CVD conditions according to gender and asthma status using multiple logistic regression adjusted for age, gender and other CVD risk factors.

The proportions of subjects with child and adult-onset asthma were 4.8% (n=702) and 3.3% (n=534), respectively. Adult-onset asthma was significantly associated with total CVD (OR=2.07, CI=1.2-3.7), but child-onset asthma was not associated with any CVD conditions. Of the four specific CVD endpoints, adult-onset asthma overall was only associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) (OR=2.26, CI=1.2-4.2) in the total population.

Our data suggests that CHD is the major cardiovascular condition associated with asthma; a prospective study must be done to confirm a causal relationship.