Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2014 | Original investigation
Obesity attenuates gender differences in cardiovascular mortality
Authors:
Xin Song, Adam G Tabák, Björn Zethelius, John S Yudkin, Stefan Söderberg, Tiina Laatikainen, Coen DA Stehouwer, Rachel Dankner, Pekka Jousilahti, Altan Onat, Peter M Nilsson, Ilhan Satman, Olga Vaccaro, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Qing Qiao, for the DECODE Study Group
Published in:
Cardiovascular Diabetology
|
Issue 1/2014
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Abstract
Background
To estimate cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in relation to obesity and gender.
Methods
Data from 11 prospective cohorts from four European countries including 23 629 men and 21 965 women, aged 24 to 99 years, with a median follow-up of 7.9 years were analyzed. Hazards ratios (HR) for CVD mortality in relation to baseline body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models with age as the timescale.
Results
Men had higher CVD mortality than women in all four BMI categories (<25.0, 25.0-29.9, 30.0-34.9 and ≥35.0 kg/m2). Compared with the lowest BMI category in women, multivariable adjusted HRs (95% confidence intervals) for higher BMI categories are 1.0 (0.8-1.4), 1.6 (1.1-2.1) and 2.8 (2.0-3.8) in women and 2.8 (2.2-3.6), 3.1 (2.5-3.9), 3.8 (2.9-4.9) and 5.4 (3.8-7.7) in men, respectively. Similar findings were observed for abdominal obesity defined by WC, WHR or WHtR. The gender difference was slightly smaller in obese than in non-obese individuals; but the interaction was statistically significant only between gender and WC (p = 0.02), and WHtR (p = 0.01). None of the interaction terms was significant among non-diabetic individuals.
Conclusions
Men had higher CVD mortality than women across categories of anthropometric measures of obesity. The gender difference was attenuated in obese individuals, which warrants further investigation.