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Cardiometabolic disease risk increases with higher BMI
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A new study published in JAMA Cardiology adds further evidence of an association between high BMI and increased risk for cardiometabolic diseases including CHD, hypertension and type 2 diabetes.
Donald M. Lyall, PhD , lecturer in public health at the University of Glasgow Institute of Health and Wellbeing in Scotland, and colleagues performed a Mendelian randomization study of 119,859 participants (mean age, 57 years; 47% men; mean BMI, 27.43 kg/m2) from the U.K. Biobank who visited U.K. assessment centers from May 1 to July 11, 2016. During those visits, researchers measured BP and prevalence of CHD, hypertension and type 2 diabetes based on self reports. The researchers then constructed a polygenic risk score comprised of 93 single nucleotide polymorphisms that have been associated with BMI in other genome-wide association studies.
According to Mendelian randomization analysis, genetically instrumented higher BMI was positively associated with risk for:
- hypertension (OR per 1-SD higher BMI = 1.64; 95% CI, 1.48-1.83);
- CHD (OR = 1.35; 95% CI, 1.09-1.69);
- type 2 diabetes (OR = 2.53; 95% CI, 2.04-3.13); and
- systolic BP ( = 1.65 mm Hg; 95% CI, 0.78-2.52) and diastolic BP ( = 1.37 mm Hg; 95% CI, 0.88-1.85).
The researchers did not identify an association between higher BMI and pulse rate or stroke.
Moreover, the links between higher BMI and cardiometabolic disease risk were independent of smoking status, alcohol intake, Townsend deprivation scores, sex, age and antihypertensive medication.
“Three previous studies have provided causal estimates of BMI and cardiometabolic diseases based on polygenic instruments. ... Taken together, our data provide strong evidence for a casual role of higher BMI and risk of type 2 diabetes and hypertension, and evidence that BMI increases risk of CHD,” Lyall and colleagues wrote.
Further research on these associations using the U.K. Biobank data will continue, according to the researchers.
“In terms of public health, with 39% and 13% of adults overweight or obese, respectively, and [CVD] remaining the leading cause of mortality globally, our data emphasize the role of BMI, a modifiable risk factor, in cardiometabolic disease and the importance of reducing BMI at a population level to lower the incidence of cardiometabolic disease,” Lyall and colleagues wrote.” – by Darlene Dobkowski
Disclosure: Two researchers are members of U.K. Biobank scientific committees. The other researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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