Smoking and obesity linked to multiple cardiovascular diseases
In women, current smoking and diabetes treatment were linked to two- to threefold higher relative risks of multiple cardiovascular diseases versus never smoking and no diabetes treatment, respectively.
Our read
Populations- Studied:
- Cohort study of 1,244,294 UK women, against healthy-weight women or never-smokers, respectively
- What changed:
- Risk of multiple cardiovascular diseases was 2–3 times higher with obesity or current smoking versus healthy weight or never smoking
- The catch:
- Smoking was recorded only at baseline; later quitting could underestimate risks of continued smoking
- In the record:
- The 1,481st paper on smoking with results in people; 4,595 on record in all.
- Why it’s aging research:
- It measures an outcome that worsens with age.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
The 1,244,294 UK women in this prospective cohort study were recruited at ages 50–64 and followed through hospital and death records until December 2019. They reported weight, smoking, activity and medical treatments at recruitment. Researchers tracked 19 cardiovascular diseases—conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels. Having at least two different diagnoses counted as cardiovascular multimorbidity.
Obesity, current smoking and reported treatment for diabetes or high blood pressure were each linked to higher risks of multiple diagnoses. Associations were stronger for severe obesity, heavy smoking and diabetes when women developed at least four diseases or most studied disease pairs. Alcohol consumption and physical activity showed little evidence of strong associations with most outcomes.
Why it matters
For middle-aged women approaching older age, the findings bear on how cardiovascular diseases accumulate. The authors suggested that targeted risk-factor management after a first diagnosis may reduce progression to multiple diseases.
Caveats
Self-reported risk factors at recruitment may not reflect later changes, and other health and lifestyle differences between women could have contributed to the links. The analysis excluded women with existing cardiovascular disease or cancer, except non-melanoma skin cancer.
From the paper
- Participants
The study included 1 244 294 women with an average age at recruitment of 56.5 (SD 4.8) years; 20.4% were women who smoke currently, mean BMI was 26.1 (SD 4.6) kg/m² and 19.2% lived in the most deprived areas.
- Result
Obesity was associated with a higher risk of CVM: the HRs for CVM were 1.65 (95% CI 1.62 to 1.67) in obese women (BMI 30–34 kg/m²) and 2.52 (2.47–2.57) in severely obese women (BMI ≥35 kg/m²), compared with those with a healthy BMI (20–24 kg/m²).
- Limitation
One limitation is that the risk factors were reported at study baseline and may have changed over time.
Quoted word for word from the full text on PubMed Central.
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