Adulthood weight gain linked to CVD mortality, incidence

Weight gain during adulthood increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), reports a new meta-analysis.

“Measuring weight gain during adulthood may be better than static, cross-sectional assessment of weight because it considers trend over time, and thus, can be used as a supplementary approach to predict CVD,” researchers said.

From the databases of PubMed and Scopus, researchers retrieved 23 prospective cohort studies, corresponding to 1,093,337 adults in the general population. A pooled analysis of 11 cohort studies showed that gaining 5 kg of weight during adulthood led to an 11-percent spike in the relative risk (RR) of CVD mortality (RR, 1.11, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.04–1.19; p<0.001).

This interaction showed a nonlinear, dose-response trend. Particularly, the likelihood of CVD mortality did not change with weight gain from 0–5 kg but increased sharply thereafter (p_nonlinearity<0.001).

Weight gain was also associated with the risk of developing specific CVDs. For example, a 5-kg jump in body weight led to a relative 18-percent spike in coronary heart disease (RR, 1.18, 95 percent CI, 1.04–1.32), though heterogeneity was very high.

A similar pattern of effect was also found for stroke (RR, 1.08, 95 percent CI, 1.04–1.12), particularly for haemorrhagic stroke (RR, 1.17, 95 percent CI, 1.10–1.24), and for myocardial infarction (RR, 1.18, 95 percent CI, 1.12–1.25). Heart failure does not appear to be impacted by adult weight gain.

Moreover, researchers found that weight gain affected not only CVD mortality, but also CVD incidence. Each 5-kg increase in adult body weight led to a relative 12-percent jump in incidence rate (RR, 1.12, 95 percent CI, 1.10–1.13).