'Real-World' Study Finds That Obesity Doubles The Risk Of Conditions Associated With Heart Disease

Main Category: Heart Disease
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 13 Oct 2009 - 1:00 PST

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Obese patients treated in office-based medical practices were twice as likely as normal-weight patients to develop conditions associated with heart disease, a new study has found.

Researchers evaluated data collected by primary care and other office-based physician practices across the United States for a five-year period to identify whether obese patients developed hypertension, high triglycerides/low HDL, and diabetes more often than patients whose weight was considered normal. The collaborative study was conducted by Qayyim Said PhD, University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, Diana Brixner PhD, RPh, and Carrie McAdam Marx MS RPh, both University of Utah College of Pharmacy, J. Sanford Schwartz MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Rami Ben-Joseph PhD, of Sanofi-Aventis, Inc.

Patients were classified as either normal weight or obese based upon their BMI (Body Mass Index), and their medical records were evaluated for the development of high triglycerides, low HDL levels, high blood pressure, or non-insulin dependent diabetes. The study found that obese patients were more than twice as likely to develop these conditions as patients who were of normal weight.

"This study found that being obese increases patient's likelihood of developing high triglycerides, low HDL, high blood pressure or diabetes," said Brixner, the study's senior investigator. "While other studies have established that obesity leads to these chronic conditions, this study is unique in that it has confirmed the link between obesity and conditions associated with heart disease using de-identified medical record data, similar to the data collected by the average patient's primary care provider or internist."

In the past 20 years, obesity has become a major health concern and, according to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese. Research has shown that obesity increases the risk of developing numerous health problems, in addition to the ones evaluated in this study, including certain cancers, liver and gallbladder disease, and osteoarthritis.

This research will be discussed in Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research.

Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 4,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

Source
ISPOR

• Additional
• References
• Citations