Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham researchers found that long-term exposure to excess weight is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular risk than BMI at a single point in time.
The study, published April 8 in PLOS One, analyzed data from more than 136,000 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. All participants had a baseline BMI above 25 and were ages 25-69 for women and ages 43-80 for men. The study, which began in 1990, followed participants for an average of 26.7 years. During that time, about 8.8% of patients experienced cardiovascular events.
The study found that long-term exposure to excess weight was linked to increased cardiovascular disease risk, and has the strongest link among people in the younger age categories. Women younger than 35 at baseline had a 60% higher risk of cardiovascular disease, compared to 27% for women ages 35-50 and 23% for men ages 35-65. The study also found that losing weight can decrease a person’s risk.
There was no association for women older than 50 or men older than 65.
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