CVD Mortality in Mid-Life Linked to High BMI in Adolescence

Higher body mass index (BMI) and BMI in the acceptable normal range in late adolescence is linked to increased risk of death from non-coronary, non-stroke cardiovascular disease, including arrhythmia, hypertensive heart disease, cardiomyopathy, and heart failure in mid-life, according to the results of a recent study.

For their study, researchers examined data from a nationwide cohort of 2,294,139 adolescents in Israel from between 1967 and 2010. Height and weight were measured at age 17 years in all participants.
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Overall, during 42,297,007 person-years of follow-up, there were 3178 deaths due to cardiovascular causes. BMI was positively associated with fatal arrhythmias, hypertensive heart disease, cardiomyopathies, arterial disease, heart failure, and pulmonary embolism, with hazard ratios (HR) per unit increment in BMI ranging from 1.09 to 1.16.

When BMI was used as a categorical variable, researchers observed a graded increase in risk from the “high-normal” (22.0<25.0 kg/m²) to overweight to obese categories, with HRs of 1.4, 1.7, 3.7 for arrhythmias, 1.9, 4.1, 8.0 for hypertensive heart disease, 1.5, 2.4, 4.0 for cardiomyopathies, 2.7, 5.0, 3.5 for arterial disease, 1.7, 2.7, 5.4 for heart failure, and 1.3, 1.8, 3.0 for pulmonary embolism.

“Adolescent BMI within the accepted normal range is associated with non-[coronary heart disease] non-stroke cardiovascular outcomes,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Twig G, Shor DB, Furer A, et al. Adolescent body mass index and cardiovascular disease-specific mortality by midlife [published online June 9, 2017]. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. doi:

https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2017-00329.