The effect of obesity on patients with mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: results from KNHANES 2010 to 2012.
PURPOSE
A low body mass index has been associated with high mortalities in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and studies reveal that obesity aggravates the clinical effects of COPD. We investigated the impact of obesity on patients newly identified with COPD.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
This population-based, cross-sectional study, used data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) conducted from 2010 to 2012. Through analyses of data from this survey, we compared concurrent comorbid diseases, symptoms, and lung functions between an obese and nonobese group of patients with COPD.


RESULTS
In total, 618 participants were diagnosed with COPD and the average forced expired volume in 1 s (FEV1) was 79.47%±0.69%. Of the total, 30.5% of the subjects were categorized into an obese group. Subjects in the obese group were likely to have metabolic syndrome (P<0.001), hypertension (P=0.02), and a higher number of comorbidities compared to the nonobese group (2.3±0.1 vs 2.0±0.1, P=0.02). In addition, subjects in the obese group showed a lower forced vital capacity (FVC) than subjects in the nonobese group, even after adjusting for covariates (average FVC%, 89.32±1.26 vs 92.52%±0.72%, P=0.037). There were no significant differences in the adjusted FEV1% and adjusted FEV1/FVC between the groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Among subjects newly identified with mild COPD, participants in the obese group had more comorbid conditions and showed a lower FVC compared with subjects in the nonobese group, even after adjustment of covariates. These findings show that a combination of obesity and COPD may be a severe phenotype; therefore, early attention should be paid to obesity for the management of COPD patients.
['Park|Ju-Hee|JH|', 'Lee|Jung-Kyu|JK|', 'Heo|Eun Young|EY|', 'Kim|Deog Kyeom|DK|', 'Chung|Hee Soon|HS|']
D000368:Aged D015992:Body Mass Index D015897:Comorbidity D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D016208:Databases, Factual D005260:Female D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume D006801:Humans D008168:Lung D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009749:Nutrition Surveys D009765:Obesity D010641:Phenotype D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive D056910:Republic of Korea D012307:Risk Factors D012720:Severity of Illness Index D014797:Vital Capacity
obesity KNHANES COPD comorbidity lung function spirometry