Résumé
Background: overweight and obesity are common asthma comorbidities, mostly in poorly controlled and more severe asthmatics. Less is known about the influence of lifestyle and grey space exposure in the general population.Aim: to assess the association between overweight/obesity and asthma in an Italian general population sample, considering novel confounders.Methods: 2841 subjects (females: 54.7%; age range: 8-97 yr) living in Pisa, Italy, were investigated in 1991-93 through a questionnaire on health status and risk factors. By multinomial logistic models, stratified by high/low (2nd tertile=63%) grey space exposure within 1 km from home address, the association of asthma (1. symptoms without doctor diagnosis, 2. diagnosis +/− symptoms, 3. no diagnosis/symptoms) with overweight (25 ≤ body mass index-BMI < 30 kg/m2)/obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) was estimated adjusting for: sex, age, education, smoking, active lifestyle (active commuting mode, >2 hours a day outdoors) and 10% grey space increase.Results: asthma, overweight and obesity prevalence rates were 18.7, 35.8, 12.8% respectively. Besides male gender and smoking, asthma symptoms were associated with: overweight (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.20-2.99), obesity (OR 2.38; 1.27-4.45), <2 hours outdoor (OR 1.60; 1.05-2.45) in subjects with high grey space exposure; obesity (OR 1.86; 1.17-2.97), <2 hours outdoor (OR 1.41; 1.02-2.93) in those with low exposure.Conclusions: these findings suggest that the early identification of overweight/obese-asthma symptom phenotype might help prevent occurrence or worsening of asthma, mainly in an urban environment with poorly active people. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm these findings.