Association of endometriosis with asthma: a study of the NHANES database in 1999–2006

Guangxin Pan, Pei Zhang, Sha Li, Lanlan Cao, Changqun Yang
Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2024 · vol. 43(1) , pp. 50 · doi:10.1186/s41043-024-00541-3 · PMID:38594768 · W4394620254
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 2 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This study of 5,556 women from the NHANES database found that endometriosis was associated with a 1.48-fold increased odds of asthma, particularly in specific age, BMI, and pregnancy history subgroups.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This cross-sectional analysis used NHANES 1999–2006 data to evaluate whether endometriosis (self-reported doctor diagnosis) was associated with asthma (self-reported doctor diagnosis) in adult U.S. women aged ≥20 years, applying weighted univariate and multivariable logistic regression. Among 5,556 participants, endometriosis was associated with higher odds of asthma after adjusting for age, demographics, BMI/waist, smoking, hormone therapy, uterine fibroids, ovary removal, and birth control pill use (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.10–1.99), with stronger associations reported in certain subgroups (e.g., age 40–49 and BMI 25–29.9). The study’s main limitation is its cross-sectional design and reliance on self-reported diagnoses, which prevents assessing temporality or causality. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it specifically tests the association between endometriosis and asthma in the NHANES population.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Abstract Objective Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways with a gender differences in the prevalence after puberty. Recent studies have reported a relationship between asthma and endometriosis, possibly related to the immune response mechanisms, but the evidences are limited and inconsistent. Herein, this research aimed to investigate the association of endometriosis with asthma based on the representative population in the United States (U.S.) to provide some reference for further exploration on mechanism of gender difference in asthma. Methods In this cross-sectional study, data of women aged ≥ 20 years old were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database in 1999–2006. Weighted univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were utilized to explore the association of endometriosis with asthma. The multivariate models adjusted for covariates including age, race, education level, marital status, poverty income ratio (PIR), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, smoking, estrogen and progesterone hormones use, uterine fibroids, at least one ovary removed, and birth control pills intake. The evaluation indexes were odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Subgroup analyses of age, race, BMI, and pregnancy history were also performed. Results Among 5,556 eligible women, 782 had asthma, and 380 had endometriosis. The average age of participants was 37.19 years old, and more than half of them were non-Hispanic White (68.44%). After adjusting for covariates, endometriosis was associated with higher odds of asthma compared with non-endometriosis [OR = 1.48, 95%CI: (1.10–1.99)]. This relationship was also found in 40–49 years old [OR = 2.26, 95%CI: (1.21–4.23)], BMI of 25-29.9 kg/m 2 [OR = 2.87, 95%CI: (1.52–5.44)], and pregnancy history [OR = 1.44, 95%CI: (1.01–2.06)] subgroups. Conclusion Endometriosis had a positive association with asthma in adult women. Females aged 40–49 years old, with BMI of 25-29.9 kg/m 2 and had a history of pregnancy should take care about monitoring endometriosis to reduce the potential risk of asthma. Further studies are still needed to clarify the causal association between endometriosis and asthma.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Asthma Endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (40)

Cited by (2)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-30T00:32:59.063209+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK