Here’s what causes asthma in kids with obesity

Weight might be the cause for one-fourth of asthma cases in kids with obesity, a recent study suggests.

Business Standard|The research, which studied health data from more than 500,000 children in the United States, suggested that about 10 percent of all kids aged between 2 to 17 with asthma, might have avoided the illness by maintaining a healthy weight. The findings are published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

“Asthma is the number one chronic disease in children and some of the causes such as genetics and viral infections during childhood are things we can’t prevent. Obesity may be the only risk factor for childhood asthma that could be preventable. This is another piece of evidence that keeping kids active and at a healthy weight is important,” said Jason E. Lang, lead author of the study.

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For the retrospective study, researchers analyzed data for 507,496 children from more than 19 million doctor’s visits at six major children’s health centers.

Those classified as having asthma had been diagnosed at two or more doctor’s appointments and had also received a prescription, such as an inhaler. Tests of their lung function also confirmed they had the disease.

Children classified as obese (those with a body-mass index (BMI) in the 95th percentile or above for their age and sex) had a 30-percent increased risk of developing asthma than peers of a healthy weight…Read More

Back pain linked to risky behaviours in teenagers: Study

Does your adolescent son or daughter suffer from back pain often? Beware, he or she may be more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and report problems like anxiety and depression.

BS | Although often dismissed as trivial and fleeting, adolescent back pain is responsible for substantial health care use, school absence, and interference with day-to-day activities in some children.

The findings showed that the rising frequency of pain increasing the proportion of participants reporting smoking, drinking, and missing school rose.

For example, 14-15 year olds that experienced pain more than once a week were 2-3 times more likely to have drunk alcohol or smoked in the past month than those who rarely or never had pain.

Similarly, students that experienced pain more than once a week were around twice as likely to have missed school in the previous term.

The trend with anxiety and depression was less clear, although there was a marked difference between the children who reported no pain, and those who reported frequent pain, the researchers said.

“Findings like this provide an argument that we should be including pain in the broader conversation about adolescent health,” said lead author Steven Kamper from the University of Sydney in Australia.

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