Characteristics of Physician Office Visits for Obesity by Adults Aged 20 and Over: United States, 2012

In 2011–2014, current asthma prevalence was higher among adults with obesity compared with adults in lower weight categories. This pattern was consistent across most demographic subgroups, except among men, for whom no statistically significant difference in current asthma prevalence by weight status was observed. Other epidemiologic studies of asthma prevalence have shown conflicting results about whether obesity is a risk factor for asthma among males. By race and Hispanic origin, current asthma prevalence was highest among adults with obesity for all groups. Patterns differed slightly among groups. For non-Hispanic black and Hispanic adults, prevalence for those with obesity was higher than for those in the normal weight and overweight categories. For non-Hispanic white adults, there was no signficant difference in asthma prevalence between the obese and overweight categories. For all age groups, current asthma prevalence was highest among adults with obesity, and there was no significant difference in asthma prevalence between those in the normal weight and overweight categories. There was an increasing trend in asthma prevalence as weight increased that was observed most clearly in the 60 and over age group. From 2001 to 2014, there was an increasing trend in current asthma prevalence among adults overall and among overweight adults. However, no significant trend was observed among adults in other weight categories. Findings from an American Thoracic Society workshop on obesity and asthma concluded that obesity is a major risk factor for asthma, and that obesity-related asthma is likely different from other types of asthma (e.g., allergic, occupational, exercise-induced, nocturnal, aspirin-sensitive, and severe asthma).