For those diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, hazard ratios for all-cause mortality, incident heart failure, ischemic stroke increased with higher BMI
TUESDAY, Oct. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Increasing body mass index (BMI) in young males is associated with an increased risk for atrial fibrillation (AF) and with worse outcomes among those diagnosed with AF, according to a study published online Oct. 19 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Demir Djekic, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and colleagues conducted a nationwide, register-based cohort study of 1,704,467 men enrolled in compulsory military service in Sweden to examine the role of obesity in the development of AF in young males.
A total of 36,693 cases of AF were recorded during a median follow-up of 32 years. The researchers observed an increase in the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio for AF from 1.06 to 3.72 for individuals with BMI of 20 to 2 and among men with BMI of 40.0 to 50.0 kg/m2, respectively, compared with those with BMI of 18.5 to 2. For patients diagnosed with AF, there were 3,767 deaths, 3,251 cases of incident heart failure, and 921 cases of ischemic stroke during a median follow-up of six years. For men with baseline BMI >30 kg/m2 versus those with BMI 2, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality, incident heart failure, and ischemic stroke were 2.86, 3.42, and 2.34, respectively, in AF-diagnosed men.
“Whether screening for atrial fibrillation in early adulthood among individuals with long-standing obesity and more robust follow-up and initiation of anticoagulants in people with long-standing obesity and atrial fibrillation may improve survival needs to be addressed in future randomized trials,” Djecik said in a statement.
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