Being overweight or obese in adolescence is strongly associated with increased cardiovascular mortality in adulthood, according to a study that examined the association between body mass index (BMI) in late adolescence and death from CV causes in adulthood. Researchers found:

• During 42,297,007 person-years follow-up (40 years of follow-up), 2,918 of 32,127 deaths (9.1%) were from CV causes, including 1,497 from coronary heart disease, 528 from stroke, and 893 from sudden death.

• There was a graded increase in the risk of death from CV causes and all causes that started among participants in the group that was in the 50th to 74th percentiles of BMI (within the accepted normal range).

• Hazard ratios (HRs) in the obese group (≥95th percentile for BMI), as compared with the reference group in the 5th to 24th percentiles, were 4.9 for death from coronary heart disease, 2.6 for death from stroke, 2.1 for sudden death, and 3.5 for death from total CV causes.

• HRs for death from CV causes in the same percentile groups increased from 2.0 during follow-up for 0 to 10 years to 4.1 during follow-up for 30 to 40 years.

Citation: Twig G, Yaniv G, Levine H et al. Body-mass index in 2.3 million adolescents and cardiovascular death in adulthood. [Published online ahead of print April 13, 2016]. N Engl J Med. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1503840.