Childhood obesity and severity of acute asthma in children treated at Belen Hospital of Trujillo

Abstract

This research was carried out in order to determine whether there is a relationship between obesity and severity of asthma attacks in children pediatric emergency service of Hospital Belen de Trujillo; through an applied, observational, correlational, cross-sectional study, which included 138 children aged 5-14 years diagnosed with asthma and treated for asthma attacks. They were divided according to the severity of the crisis, also obesity was assessed by recording the BMI of each patient and dividing in obese and non-obese; the chi-square statistic was used to verify the significance of the association. Concluding a significant association between childhood obesity and increased severity of childhood asthma crisis in the Belen Hospital of Trujillo. No significant differences were found in relation to age, sex or origin between the study groups. The frequency of severe asthma attack was 25% and no severe asthma attack was 75%. The childhood obesity rate was 22% and no childhood obesity was 78%.