Heart failure & cardiomyopathies
Body Mass Index in Young Women and Risk of Cardiomyopathy: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study in Sweden
Main finding · CardiomyopathyResult — go to the resultHazard ratio 4.71 95% CI 2.81–7.89Authors' conclusion
Elevated BMI among young women was associated with an increased risk of being diagnosed with a subsequent cardiomyopathy, especially dilated cardiomyopathy, starting already at mildly elevated body weight, whereas severe obesity entailed an almost 5-fold increase in risk.
Study context
- Population
- Women of childbearing age (18–45 years) at the first antenatal visit in their first or second pregnancy, Swedish Medical Birth Register, 1982 to 2014final sample after exclusions
- Participants
- 1,388,571 women
- Exposure
- Higher body mass index (BMI) vs BMI 20 to <22.5 kg/m²
- Outcome
- Cardiomyopathy diagnosis
- Follow-up
- Up to 33 years
Methodological detailsregistry-based, national
- Registry-based
- National
Main finding
Cardiomyopathy
Hazard ratio
4.71
95% CI 2.81–7.89
BMI ≥35 kg/m² vs BMI 20 to <22.5
HR 4.71 (95% CI 2.81–7.89)
As reported in the abstract
- Cardiomyopathy cases
- 1699
- Incidence rate per 100 000 observation years
- 5.9
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Cardiomyopathy subtypes
- Dilated cardiomyopathy
- 481
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- 246
- Alcohol/drug-induced cardiomyopathy
- 61
- Other forms
- 509
- Mean age at diagnosis (SD 9.1), years
- 46.2
Original publication
Body Mass Index in Young Women and Risk of Cardiomyopathy: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study in Sweden. Circulation. Published 17 February 2020. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it