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. 2022 Jan;10(1):231-239.e3.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2021.08.040. Epub 2021 Sep 16.

Self-Reported Physical Activity and Asthma Risk in Children

Kim Lu  1 , Margo Sidell  2 , Xia Li  2 , Emily Rozema  2 , Dan M Cooper  1 , Shlomit Radom-Aizik  1 , William W Crawford  3 , Corinna Koebnick  4
Affiliations

Self-Reported Physical Activity and Asthma Risk in Children

Kim Lu et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Increased physical activity (PA) may protect against asthma but PA can trigger asthma symptoms.

Objective: To investigate relationships between moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) assessed during routine care visits and incident asthma.

Methods: For this retrospective cohort, 542,486 children between 2 and 17 years from 2010 to 2017 were included who had an MVPA assessment (exercise vital sign) during routine care visits. The association of MVPA and asthma was analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression models as a function of age, with MVPA and body mass index (BMI) being time-varying factors, adjusted for race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and air pollution.

Results: The mean MVPA was 5.4 (standard deviation: 4.4) hours/week. Crude asthma incidence density rate (IDR) was highest in children with <1 hour/week of MVPA (IDR: 9.07, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.79, 9.36) and lowest in children engaging in 4 to 7 hours/week of MVPA (IDR: 6.55, 95% CI: 6.33, 6.77). In adjusted models, an increase in MVPA was associated with lower asthma risk in children reporting 0 hour/week of MVPA (hazard ratio: 0.981, 95% CI: 0.973, 0.990). In children with ≥8 hours/week of MVPA, an increase in MVPA was associated with higher asthma risk (1.005, 95% CI: 1.002, 1.009). There was no significant BMI by MVPA interaction.

Conclusion: Increasing MVPA in children with low activity levels is associated with lower asthma risk; children reporting high levels of activity may experience greater asthma risk as their activity levels increase further. Understanding the role of PA in the development of asthma and assessing MVPA during routine care visits in children may help to develop targeted interventions and guide asthma management.

Keywords: Asthma; Children; Obesity; Physical activity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Lu was an employee of the University of California, Irvine during the concept, data collection and development of this publication. Dr. Lu is currently an employee of Novartis Pharma.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Study flow chart.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Effect of MVPA on the risk of any asthma and persistent asthma (prescription of rescue and controller medication) *Adjusted for sex, race/ethnicity, government health care assistance, and air pollution (ozone levels); stratified by baseline year. Missing values for BMI or MVPA were imputed (equivalent to Model 1 in Table 3). Green indicates a decrease and red an increase in asthma risk
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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