High levels of HbA1c are associated with an increased risk for asthma-related hospitalizations, according to new research.
“Asthma hospitalizations result from severe or poorly controlled disease and account for a high proportion of asthma-related health care costs,” Juan C. Celedón, MD, DrPH, FAAAI, the Niels K. Jerne Professor of Pediatrics and professor of medicine, epidemiology and human genetics at University of Pittsburgh and division chief of pulmonary medicine at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, told Healio.Celedón is also president of the American Thoracic Society.
“Whereas insulin resistance and glucose dysregulation had been associated with asthma and asthma severity, the role of an elevated glycated HbA1c on asthma control of severity is less clear.”
The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the relationship between HbA1c level and hospitalizations for asthma and lung function measures. Celedón and colleagues used data from the UK Biobank to identify a cohort of 47,606 adults aged 40 to 69 years with physician-diagnosed asthma but no diagnosis of diabetes. For this study, HbA1c levels were categorized as normal or as consistent with prediabetes or diabetes.
