Overweight adults with central obesity had an increased risk of mortality compared with counterparts without central obesity, according to a survey analysis.
The researchers also found that all participants with central obesity had an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, including those with a normal weight. The researchers defined central obesity based on participants’ waist-to-hip ratio.
Lead researcher Mark Hamer, PhD, of Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, and colleagues published their results online in the Annals of Internal Medicine on April 24.
The study included 42,702 participants who completed the Health Survey for England or the Scottish Health Survey during a 10-year period. The mean age was 57.7 years old, and 46.8 percent of participants were men.
Of the participants, 31.3 percent were normal weight, 43.7 percent were overweight and 25 percent were obese. The researchers defined normal weight as a body mass index (BMI) of less than 25 kg/m2, overweight as a BMI of between 25 and 30 kg/m2 and obese as a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or greater.
They also took two measurements of all participants’ waist and hip circumference. Men with a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.9 or higher and women with a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.85 or higher were considered to have central obesity.
The prevalence of central obesity was 28.7 percent in normal weight participants, 60.2 percent in overweight participants and 72.7 percent in obese participants.
During the follow-up period, 5,355 participants died. Normal weight and obese participants with central obesity were the only groups at an increased mortality risk compared with normal weight participants without central obesity, which was the reference group.
Meanwhile, overweight adults with central obesity had an 11 percent increased mortality risk compared with overweight adults who did not have central obesity. In addition, obese adults with central obesity had a 27 percent increased mortality risk compared with obese adults who did not have central obesity.
Further, all participants were central obesity had an increased mortality risk from cardiovascular disease compared with the reference group. In all, 1,720 adults died of cardiovascular disease. The researchers noted the results were similar for men and women.
“Our research does back up the findings of previous smaller scale studies which show normal weight people with central obesity are at increased risk for all-cause mortality,” Hamer said in a news release. “It is yet further evidence that even if you are within a ‘healthy’ BMI range but you carry weight around your stomach your health is still at risk. The message here is that if you do have central obesity, no matter what your BMI, you should take steps to reduce this fat.”
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.