Date of Award

1-6-2017

Degree Type

Closed Capstone Project

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

Public Health

First Advisor

Ike Okosun, PhD

Second Advisor

Dora Il'yasova, PhD

Abstract

An Examination of Metabolic Syndrome in Asthmatic Subjects: A study using the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

By

Jasmine N. Cunningham

INTRODUCTION: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disorder that is associated with airway hyper-responsiveness. Asthma affects millions of people worldwide and has current prevalence of 8.4% in the United States. More recent studies suggest metabolic syndrome (MS) as a risk factor for asthma development due to a combination of metabolic disorders that result in airway dysfunction, epithelial damage and airway smooth muscle proliferation. Several studies suggest a potential association between asthma and metabolic syndrome; however, there is still a gap in determining if metabolic syndrome and asthma are positively linked.

AIM: The principal objective of this study is to further investigate the association between asthma and metabolic syndrome among the U.S. adult population.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was utilized using secondary data from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). This study was restricted to 1521 participants who reported their current asthmatic status with no missing values for components of metabolic syndrome. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between asthma and metabolic syndrome. Statistical adjustments were made for age, gender, ethnicity and smoking status.

RESULTS: There were 939 individuals (61.74%) who reported having asthma and 582 individuals (38.26%) who reported not having asthma. Subjects with asthma were more likely (OR=1.65; 95% CI= 0.93-2.92) to have metabolic syndrome, adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, and smoking. However, the association was not statistically significant.

DISCUSSION: Although not statistically significant, the result of this study provides further insight of the possible association between asthma and metabolic syndrome. A more robust data using a large and representative sample may provide a strong evidence of the nature and type of relationship between asthma and metabolic syndrome. Understanding the relationship is critical for designing public health intervention to reduce the increasing prevalence of asthma and metabolic syndrome.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/9465499

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