SAN FRANCISCO (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Of people with asthma, those who are obese are 66 percent more likely to report severe symptoms than their thinner counterparts, report researchers from Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta. In this new study of 5,741 asthmatic patients, researchers report obese patients were:

• 66 percent more likely to report having asthma symptoms all the time
• 47 percent less likely to be in asthma remission
• 52 percent more likely to have severe persistent asthma

Obese asthmatics were also 36 percent more likely to miss more than two days of work per year due to asthma than non-overweight asthma patients.

There have been many previous studies on the link between obesity asthma, but researchers say there has been little data on asthma severity and obesity. They add while it's not known for sure how asthma and obesity are linked, it may be from an association between the hormone leptin, which regulates body weight, and inflamed airways in asthmatics.

Other research is now focused on whether weight loss interventions -- such as bariatric surgery -- could reduce asthma incidence.