Background: A dose dependent relationship between obesity and asthma has been reported in several epidemiologic studies. It has been proposed that interventions targeting obesity may reduce the incidence of asthma. We hypothesize that surgically induced weight loss will decrease the prevalence of asthma in a large group of bariatric patients.
Methods: We analyzed data on 356 gastric bypass patients. Asthma status was analyzed prospectively at the initial standardized pre-operative evaluation process and reassessed one-year after the surgery.
Results: Of the 356 patients in our bariatric cohort, 106 reported asthma pre-operatively. Of those 106 patients with asthma, 71 attended their one year follow-up and were eligible for analysis. Within the group of 71 patients with complete data 36 patients reported resolution (50.7%), 26 reported improvement (36.6%), 8 reported no change (11.2%) and 1 reported worsening (1.5%). Excluding asthma patients with incomplete data, the prevalence of asthma within the cohort dropped from 22.1% to 10.9% (p=0.003).
Conclusion: Bariatric surgery patients previously diagnosed with asthma showed significant improvement in their asthma symptoms one year after surgery. Our results confirmed those of previous studies suggesting that obesity is strongly associated with asthma. Gastric bypass induced weight loss significantly reduced the prevalence of asthma in a morbidly obese population.
Session: Poster
Program Number: P024