Clinical impact of obesity on respiratory diseases: A real-life study

Obesity has become an epidemic that affects Mexico; significantly interferes with respiratory physiology by decreasing lung volumes, therefore, might be considered as a relevant risk factor associated with the development of respiratory diseases.

Our primary outcome was to analyze the frequency and risk factors between obesity and respiratory disease in the Mexican population.

An observational, single-center, descriptive study, which included the totality of patients who were referred for medical attention at the Respiratory and Thorax Surgery Unit at the Hospital Regional de Alta Especialidad de la Península de Yucatán during the period from January 2015 to December 2018. The cases were grouped based on the existence or not of respiratory disease and the presence or absence of obesity (body mass index [BMI] >30 kg/m²).

A total of 1167 patients were included; about 39% of the population had average BMI 36.5 kg/m². The primary respiratory diseases in obese patients were Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS, 19%) and asthma (15%). The logistic regression analysis showed a direct association between the presence of obesity with respiratory disease (odds ratio 1.58, 95% confidence interval 1.22-2.03, P < 0.001), the strength of this association was related with asthma and OSAS.

The presence of obesity is an independent risk factor for respiratory disease, primarily for OSAS and asthma.