Inhaled-corticosteroids, body weight and height in children with asthma

Background: A widespread belief also is that prolonged long-term treatment with corticosteroids will lead to elevated body weight and could lead to short stature.Therefore we evaluated the height and weight status in the children admitted in the hospital for asthma attack regarding the asthma severity, the natural history of asthma and inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) treatment period.Material and method: For a period of 1 year (Jan- Dec 2014) we evaluated 174 (105 boys, mean age 7,72±0.33 and 69 girls, mean age 7.61±0.49) children with asthma. A detailed natural history, pulmonary function test, bronchodilation test and anthropometric data were gathered, as well as data for a control group of 189 patients with acute respiratory infections matched by age and sex.Results: 67 asthmatic patients have been using ICS (27 for more than 5 years). There were not any significant correlations between height, weight, BMI (SDS) and the ICS treatment period, the time without controller therapy, BDR response, birth weight, the asthma duration, family history or atopy status (pu003e0,05, r 0,01-0,2). No differences were found in height SDS when the kids were stratified according ICS treatment and its duration (less or over 5 years)(pu003e0,1), the same results came for weight (pu003e0,1) and BMI (pu003e0,1). Comparing with the control group, there is not a significant difference in weight (p=0,07 asthma vs controls, p=0,15 asthma on ICS vs controls), height (p=0.06 asthma on ICS vs. controls).Conclusion: Long-term ICS therapy is not that determining for height and weight status in asthma patients.