Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and Visceral Adipose Tissue

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are associated with multiple cardiometabolic risk factors. In a national survey of nearly 200000 adults, the prevalence of hypertension was 28% among adults who were overweight compared with only 16% among normal-weight adults. Other epidemiologic studies have also clearly established the association of increases in body mass index with an increase in the age-adjusted relative risk for the development of type 2 diabetes in both men and women. In men, the relative risk of diabetes has more than doubled in overweight individuals whose body mass index is 25 compared with lean individuals with a body mass index of <23. The risk rises exponentially as body mass index increases: risk is increased 12-fold in obese men with a body mass index of 31 and 42-fold in severely obese men with a body mass index greater than or equal to 35. Even more precipitous increases in the risk of diabetes with increases in body mass index are seen in women. In the Nurses' Health Study, relative risk rose about 8-fold in women with a body mass index of 25 compared with women whose body mass index was less than 22. The risk quintupled to about 40-fold in women with a body mass index of 31. In severely obese women, the relative risk of type 2 diabetes was 93-fold greater than in lean women.