Prevalence of Comorbidities in Asthma and Nonasthma Patients: A Meta-analysis

This study compares the prevalence rates of comorbidities between asthma and nonasthma control patients reported in the literature. Literature was searched in several electronic databases. After the selection of studies by following précised eligibility criteria, meta-analyses of odds ratios were carried out with subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Eleven studies studying 117,548 asthma patients compared with 443,948 non-asthma controls were included in the meta-analysis. The prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities (odds ratio (OR): [95% CI] 1.90 [1.70, 2.14]; P < 0.00001), cerebrovascular comorbidities (OR 1.44 [1.29, 1.60]; P < 0.00001), obesity (OR 1.51 [1.14, 2.01]; P < 0.00001), hypertension (OR 1.66 [1.47, 1.88]; P < 0.00001, diabetes (OR 1.25 [1.08, 1.44]; P < 0.00001), other metabolic and endocrine comorbidities (OR 1.60 [1.40, 1.83]; P < 0.00001), psychiatric and neurological comorbidities (OR 1.62 [1.44, 1.82]; P < 0.00001), gut and urinary comorbidities (OR 1.91 [1.47, 2.49]; P < 0.00001),), cancer (OR 1.17 [1.10, 1.25]; P < 0.00001), and respiratory comorbidities (OR 5.60 [4.22, 7.44]; P < 0.00001) were significantly higher in the asthma patients in comparison with nonasthma controls. Asthma is associated with significantly higher comorbidities including cardio-/cerebrovascular diseases, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, psychiatric and neurological comorbidities, gut and urinary conditions, cancer, and respiratory problems other than asthma. Respiratory comorbidities are found 5 times more prevalent in asthma than in non-asthma patients.