Change in BMI during puberty tied to later heart failure risk

(HealthDay)—Change in body mass index (BMI) to overweight during puberty significantly increases men's risk of heart failure later in life, according to a study published online March 12 in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Jenny M. Kindblom, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and colleagues used data from the BMI Epidemiology Study to assess the association between childhood BMI and BMI change during puberty and risk of adult heart failure. Researchers collected data on 37,670 men born between 1945 and 1961 and followed until December 2013.

The researchers found that BMI change during puberty was independently associated with risk of heart failure in a nonlinear J-shaped manner, regardless of childhood BMI. Compared with participants in the lowest quartile of BMI change, those in the upper quartile during puberty had more than a two-fold increase in risk of heart failure (hazard ratio [HR], 2.29; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.68 to 3.12). Compared with boys who were neither overweight during childhood or puberty, boys developing overweight during puberty had increased risk of heart failure (HR, 3.14; 95 percent CI, 2.25 to 4.38), but not boys who were overweight in childhood who normalized weight during puberty (HR, 1.12; 95 percent CI, 0.63 to 2.00).

"BMI change during puberty is a novel risk factor for adult heart failure in men," the authors write.

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