(HealthDay News) — Higher adiposity over adulthood is associated with adverse cardiac structure and function, according to a study published online July 16 in the European Heart Journal.
Lamia Al Saikhan, PhD, from the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and colleagues examined the role of excess adiposity over the adult life course on cardiac structure and systolic and diastolic function among 1,690 participants in the National Survey of Health and Development birth cohort.
The researchers found that independent of confounders, increased body mass index (BMI) from age 20 years onward was associated with greater left ventricular mass (LVM) and LV internal diameter in diastole (LVIDd). For LVIDd, associations remained independent of current BMI, while for LVM, they remained independent of BMI at age 26, 43, and 53 years. Increased BMI from age 43 years onward was associated with greater relative wall thickness, but the association did not persist when accounting for BMI at age 60 to 64 years. Associations were seen for increased BMI at age 26, 36, and 53 years and at 20 years onward with lower ejection fraction and myocardial contraction fraction, respectively, but these were not independent of BMI at age 60 to 64 years. Independent of confounders, higher BMI from 20 years onward was associated with poorer diastolic function. After adjustment for BMI at 60 to 64 years, associations between BMI and left atrial volume indexed to body surface area persisted from 26 years onward. For waist-to-hip ratio, similar relationships were observed from age 43 years onward.
“Our data suggest lasting effects of adiposity on cardiac structure and function and reinforce calls for system approaches to the obesity syndemic,” the authors write.
