Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Link Between Childhood Obesity and Allergies
Recent studies show there may be a possible link between childhood obesity and allergies. According to the article in The New York Times, the study published in Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, obese children and adolescents are at increased risk of having some kind of allergy, especially food allergies.
Funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Science and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, researchers analyzed data on 4,111 children and young adults from age 2 to 19 from a new national dataset designed to obtain information about allergies and asthma, according to the Times.
Data collected in National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
The Times reported that Darryl Zeldin, M.D., acting clinical director at NIEHS and senior author on the paper said the study found a link but that does not necessarily mean that being obese causes allergies. According to the Times, the study is the first to be published using new data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
NHANES is a large nationally representative survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). NHANES is intended to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the US, and includes a section for allergy/asthma that makes it the largest national dataset of allergy and asthma information, according to the Times.
Analyzing allergens and obesity
Researchers in the study looked at allergens of various kinds, body weight, and analyzed responses to a questionnaire about allergies, said the article. The researchers then found that obese children were about 26 percent more likely to have allergies than children of normal weight, said the Times.
Dr. Cynthia M. Visness, lead author on the paper and a scientist at Rho Federal Systems Division, Inc. in Chapel Hill, N.C., said that obesity and allergic disease has increased among children over the past several decades and it’s important to understand the connection to prevent any more increases, said the Times.
Obesity in children also increases their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other conditions that contribute to developing cardiovascular disease.
For more information on childhood obesity, go to the website of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
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