Relationship between obesity and cardiovascular disease by age

Why older people should be 'slightly overweight' but younger people 'thinner'

Obesity is well known as a risk factor for arteriosclerosis, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and death. Being underweight is also associated with an increase in cardiovascular disease mortality. It means that body mass index and cardiovascular disease risk have a U-shaped correlation.

The younger you are, the more dangerous

Young people who are obese have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. On the contrary, older people were more healthy when they were slightly overweight.

A study found that the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular system was affected by age. This is the result of a cohort study conducted by a research team from the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Seoul National University Hospital using the database of the National Health Insurance Corporation on 9,278433 people without cardiovascular disease.

In this study, obesity and the risk of myocardial infarction, heart failure, and death showed an overall U-shaped association. There were some differences in the BMI section with the lowest risk for each disease. Myocardial infarction was lowest in normal weight (18.5-22.9 kg/m2), heart failure in the pre-obesity stage (23-24.9 kg/m2), and death in mild obesity (25-29.9 kg/m2).

When classified by age group, significant differences were revealed. As a result of the analysis by dividing into ▲young (20-39 years old) ▲ middle-aged (40-64 years old) ▲ old (65 years and older), the risk of myocardial infarction among young people was higher the more obese, the higher the risk for middle-aged people, the U-shaped, and the older people, the lower the weight. increased. The BMI section with the lowest risk of heart failure was normal weight for young adults, normal weight or pre-obesity for middle-aged people, and pre-obesity for older people. The risk of death was lowest for mild obesity and high for severely underweight among all age groups.

Overall

it means that the risk of cardiovascular disease increases when young people are obese, and when middle-aged and elderly people are underweight. The research team said, "Young people are advised to control their weight so that they do not become obese, and appropriate exercise and diet are recommended for the elderly to prevent weight loss."