If you have asthma and also are obese, you’re probably going to have trouble controlling your asthma, or at least more trouble than non-obese people with asthma do. I’ve reported here in the past on the risks associated with obesity and asthma.

• The obesity & asthma link
• Obesity’s effect on asthma severity
• Overweight babies at greater risk for asthma

Now, a new study lends further support to these issues. In fact, this Kaiser Permanente study published in the September issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that obesity increased the risk of hospitalization for asthma by 5 times.

Here are the highlights of the study:

• 1,113 patients in Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, who were age 35 and older, and who had persistent asthma participated
• Participants were surveyed about their weight, height, smoking habits, other illnesses, treatment and their asthma-specific quality of life, asthma control and asthma-related hospitalizations.
• Other risk factors, such as smoking, were adjusted for in the final results

These were the specific findings from the study:

• Obese people with asthma had significantly worse asthma control, lower asthma-related quality of life, and had 4.6 times higher risk for asthma-related hospitalizations than non-obese asthmatics
• Obese people with asthma were younger and less educated than non-obese people with asthma
• Obese people with asthma used more oral steroids
• Obese people with asthma had a higher incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disorder

In summary, if you have GERD, your asthma needs to be monitored more carefully because it’s harder to maintain asthma control.