High BMI ups population death burden due to noncommunicable diseases

High body mass index (BMI) accounts for a substantial burden of deaths due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), reports a recent Chile study.

Drawing from the 2016–2017 Chilean National Health Survey, the researchers looked at data from 5,927 adults. The goal of the study was to elucidate the link between a 5-unit increase in BMI with mortality due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and respiratory diseases.

The mean population BMI was 29.2±5.5 kg/m², which tended to be higher in women (29.6±5.8 vs 28.4±4.8 kg/m²). The overall prevalence rates of overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9 kg/m²) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m²) were 38.9 percent and 39.1 percent, respectively.

According to the researchers, reducing the population-wide BMI to a mean of 22±1 kg/m², a theoretical minimum risk exposure level, could avert 21,977 deaths due to NCDs. Most preventable deaths were cardiovascular in cause (n=11,474), followed by cancer (n=5,597) and respiratory diseases (n=4,906).

Even with a more realistic BMI target (mean of 27.1±4.2 kg/m² in men and 28.3±5.5 kg/m² in women) could have profound public health impacts, averting 2,329 NCD deaths, approximately 4 percent of all deaths in Chile in 2018.

“The prevalence of overweight and obesity is high in the Chilean population, with some variability across regions. Such high BMI conferred, approximately, 21,977 deaths from NCD per year in Chile, which represents about 31.6 percent of major deaths from NCD and 20.4 percent of all deaths in 2018,” the researchers said.

These findings underline the need for public health programmes to lower the population BMI and promote a healthy weight and diet in order to combat rising rates of NCD, they added.