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Annual Congress of Malaysian Thoracic Society
PP 15
Effect Of Body Mass Index (BMI) On Asthma Control And Treatment
K T Chua, Y K Pang, B K Lim, C H Lee, N L Lai, C K Liam
Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
OBJECTIVES
To assess the association of BMI with Asthma Control Test (ACT) score, Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA)-
defined asthma control and the use of controller medication.
METHODOLOGY
Patients attending the Asthma Clinic from 1-Jan-11 to 30-Apr-11 were requested to answer the ACT. The
patient’s demographic data, GINA-defined asthma control and prescribed controller medications were
documented during the same clinic visit. Patients were stratified based on BMI.
RESULTS
80 overweight patients (BMI ≥ 23.0) had totally controlled asthma, 46 had partially controlled asthma and 51
had uncontrolled asthma. The numbers were 25, 11 and 10 for the normal BMI patients and 3, 6 and 2 for the
underweight patients (BMI < 18.5) respectively. 352 overweight patients had a mean ACT score of 19.2, mean
score of 80 normal weight patients was 19.3, and 20 underweight patients scored 16.3 on average. Among the
overweight patients, 8 patients were on step 1 treatment, 38 patients required ICS alone, 174 patients required
ICS/LABA combination only, 105 patients needed ICS/LABA with leukotriene modifier and/or sustained release
theophylline, another 18 patients were on some other combination treatment. The numbers were 6, 5, 39, 23
and 4 for the normal weight patients and 2, 1, 11, 4 and 1 for the underweight patients respectively.
DISCUSSION
Higher BMI was not associated with lower ACT score, poorer GINA-defined asthma control or higher
requirement for controller treatment. The underweight patients had lower ACT score and poorer asthma
control due to the small number of patients compared to other groups.
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