Obesity and asthma go together. In 2010, 38.8 percent of American adults with current asthma were obese, against 26.8 percent of adults without asthma — a significantly higher rate.
Why the link matters
Obesity is a risk factor for developing asthma. It is also significantly associated with worse asthma symptoms and poor asthma control, which in turn lead to more medication use and more hospital stays.
State by state
Percentage of adults who are obese. Credit: CDC, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2010.
Obesity rates differ from state to state, but the gap between adults with and without asthma shows up almost everywhere. The rate among adults with current asthma was significantly higher than among adults without it in almost every state, in Puerto Rico and in the two territories. The exceptions were eight states:
- Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware and Kansas
- Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska and New York
The highest obesity rates cluster in the Midwest and the South.
How the numbers were counted
| Term | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Current asthma | answered "yes" to both "Have you ever been told by a doctor, nurse, or other health professional that you had asthma?" and "Do you still have asthma?" |
| Obesity | set by Body Mass Index (BMI), measured in kilograms per square meter, calculated from each respondent's weight and height |
| Data | Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2010 |
Who keeps track
CDC's National Asthma Control Program (NACP) was created in 1999 to help the millions of people with asthma in the United States gain control over their disease. It runs national asthma surveillance and funds states, both to improve their own surveillance and to direct effort and resources where they are needed. The AsthmaStats factsheet (PDF, 211 KB) has more.
Sources
Based on "AsthmaStats: Asthma and Obesity" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a work of the United States government in the public domain. Data: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2010.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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