Asthma and obesity are two major public health problems worldwide. It is now well established that there is a strong link between obesity and asthma. Management of obese patients with asthma is complex in clinical practice because, compared to asthma patients with a normal weight, obese patients with asthma are more prone to respiratory symptoms, asthma attacks and hospital admissions. Lower sensitivity to asthma treatments has also been observed. Indeed, obese patients with moderate to severe asthma respond less well to inhaled corticosteroids, which constitute the recommended treatment for asthma. Improved therapeutic strategies are required for obese patients with uncontrolled asthma.
The aim of this project is to study the effect of an intragastric balloon (IGB) on asthma control in obese patients. Obese patients with uncontrolled asthma will be recruited and randomly assigned to two intervention arms : an intragastric balloon combined with diet and exercise versus diet and exercise alone (control group). The primary endpoint will be the proportion of patients with an improvement based on an Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) score ≥ 0.5 at 1 year compared to baseline.