Lower Risk of Adverse Outcomes Seen in Obese With Heart Failure

Outcomes better for women and men with high body mass index, waist circumference

TUESDAY, July 10 (HealthDay News) -- For both women and men with advanced heart failure, having a high body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference (WC) is associated with a reduced risk of adverse outcomes, according to a study published in the July 1 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.

To investigate the role of obesity in the outcomes of men and women with heart failure, Adrienne L. Clark, from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues followed a cohort of 2,718 patients with heart failure who had their BMI measured at baseline and 469 patients who had their WC measured.

The researchers found that, for men, the two-year event-free survival was better for high versus normal BMI and WC (63.2 versus 53.5 percent and 78.8 versus 63.1 percent, respectively). For women, high versus normal BMI was associated with improved two-year event-free survival (67.1 versus 56.6 percent), but survival was similar for high and normal WC. In multivariate analysis, for men and women, normal BMI and WC correlated with increased relative risk in the primary outcome of death, urgent heart transplantation, or ventricular assist device placement.

"In our study of patients with advanced systolic heart failure, obesity as indexed by high BMI and high WC was associated with better outcomes in men and women," the authors write. "To our knowledge, our study is the first to specifically demonstrate that the obesity paradox in terms of BMI and WC is applicable to men and women with heart failure."

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