Overweight children are at the utmost risk for asthma, a new research said. A survey-based study, published in Pediatrics, is based on 507,496 children for the period for four years. None of these children had asthma and other related diseases before the start of the study.

The researchers categorized these children into three groups: overweight, obese, and normal weight. Overweight category was considered from overweight by 85% to 94%. Obese category considered overweight by 95% or more than that while normal weighing children categorized overweight by 25% to 64%. The study takes into account race, age, health insurance, medications, food allergies, and other factors.

Obese Children at Higher Risk:

The study found that children of normal weight and overweight and are at the risk of asthma by more than 17%, while obese were more susceptible to diseases by 30%.

The study stated that this growth of the asthma cases in children and especially in the obese children is due to obesity itself. Of these cases, 10 to 13% of patients are suffering from asthma due to obesity. In addition, among these the severity of asthma was found to be greater in them than that in other patients.

One of the associate professors at Duke of Pediatrics said that Asthma is common diseases among children. It is the most common reason that kids miss their schools and major reason for hospitalization. In addition, there are very fewer factors for avoiding asthma, and obesity is one of them. This study stresses on the importance of children to keep healthy weights. The study suggest that childhood obesity should be a priority.