Long-term weight change, incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality among diabetic adults

Abstract

We aimed to explore the impact of weight change from young to middle adulthood on incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality in US diabetic adults. All study subjects aged 40–79 years were from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1988–2018, and they were non-pregnant and had complete data on self-reported weight at age 25 and 10 years before baseline enrollment over average 29.4 years. CVD events occurring from 10 years ago to baseline enrollment were recorded. Relative to stable non-obesity group, the strongest association was noted for the weight-losing group, followed by the stable-obesity group and weight-gaining group over following 10 years. Referring to the stable-obesity group identified significance for the stable non-obesity group. If total population had maintained non-obese from young to middle adulthood, 12 % of CVD cases could have been averted. Relative to the stable non-obesity group, subjects who maintained obese between young and middle adulthood had an increased risk of all-cause mortality. Our findings indicated that the risk for incident CVD and all-cause mortality was potentially reinforced in diabetic adults who were obese at age 25 but non-obese at midlife and who remained stable obese vis-à-vis those with stable non-obesity.