Association between Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Asthma

Among the determinants contributing to the pathogenesis of asthma, antioxidant genetic factors play a leading role. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is an enzyme that is competent to detoxify free radicals. Although a relationship between G6PD deficiency and asthma has been previously reported, the literature is still scanty. In this study, we test this hypothesis in a large cohort of patients from Sardinia, Italy.

A retrospective case-control study was performed using data from 11,829 clinical records of outpatients referred to a teaching hospital for a medical visit. In total, 455 cases (asthma-positive) and 11,374 controls (asthma-negative) were compared for G6PD status using multivariable analysis, adjusting for all covariates.

Overall, G6PD deficiency was detected in 11.2% of study participants and was associated with an increased risk of asthma (odds ratio (OR) 1.63; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.27-2.10). Additional variables significantly associated with asthma were female sex (OR 1.66; 95% CI 1.34-2.06), overweight/obesity (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.27-1.92), smoking (OR 1.44; 95% CI 1.449-3.963), and high socioeconomic status (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.16-1.70), whereas age was inversely related with asthma (OR 0.49; 95% CI 0.39-0.61).

Our study shows that G6PD deficiency is an independent risk for asthma. These findings suggest that G6PD should be assessed in asthmatic patients for better risk stratification.