Life course weight transitions from birth to childhood to midlife and risk of cardiovascular diseases and its subtypes

Background and aims

Evidence on weight transitions across life stages and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is limited. We aimed to explore weight transition patterns from birth to childhood to midlife and risk of incident CVDs.

Methods

A total of 193,905 participants from the UK Biobank were included. Weight at birth, childhood, and midlife were collected at baseline (2006–2010). CVD outcomes were collected at year 2022. We constructed 27 transition patterns from birth to age 10 years to midlife. Cox proportional hazard models yielded hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between weight transition patterns and CVDs. Mediation analyses were performed. Rate advancement periods (RAP) were also calculated.

Results

Several weight transition patterns were clearly linked to risk of CVDs, including “Low birth weight → high weight at age 10 years → obesity at midlife” (HR 2.64, 95% CI 2.24–3.11), “Low birth weight → low weight at age 10 years → obesity at midlife” (2.27, 1.93–2.66), “High birth weight → low weight at age 10 years → obesity at midlife” (2.29, 1.96–2.67), and “High birth weight → high weight at age 10 years → obesity at midlife” (2.14, 1.89–2.42), which showed even stronger association with HF. RAPs of these patterns were 8.3–10.6 years for CVD and 10.0–13.1 for HF. 50% of the association between birth weight and CVDs was mediated by weight at midlife.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the importance of weight management throughout the life course in reducing the risk of CVDs, especially maintaining a heathy weight at midlife.