DEFINITION ASTHMA

Pianosi and Davis studied the pulmonary functions of children with asthma and found that overweight
and obese children were more likely to be overmedicated despite similar asthma severity
because of their perceived exercise intolerance [35]. The authors concluded that efforts should be
directed at understanding the reasons responsible for reduced exercise tolerance before escalating
pharmacologic treatment for asthma among the overweight [35]. Tantisira et al. studied pulmonary
function in a group of children with asthma and found that the ratio of forced expiratory volume
in 1 second to the forced vital capacity was inversely associated with BMI, but that other measures
of asthma severity were not independently associated with severity of overweight [36].