Comorbidity of obesity and smoking and their association with cardiometabolic risk factors: Results from the 2016-2017 National Health Survey

Abstract

The comorbidity between obesity and smoking and its association with cardiometabolic risk factors has been little explored. Describe the prevalence of such comorbidity and to explore its association with cardiometabolic risk factors. The study was based on the 2016-2017 Chilean National Health Survey and included 6,233 participants. The independent variables were general obesity according to Body Mass Index (BMI), central obesity measured by Waist-to-Height Ratio (WTHR) and Waist Circumference (WC), and daily tobacco consumption (DTC). The dependent variables were blood lipids, fasting glucose and blood pressure. The association analysis was performed by multivariate logistic regression and excluded subjects with a medical record of hypertension, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia to avoid reverse causality. The prevalence of General obesity-DTC comorbidity was 7.7%, WTHR risk-DTC was 10.8% and elevated WC-DTC was 13.2%. A total of 3,132 participants were included in logistic regressions. General obesity alone, and DTC-general obesity comorbidity had statistically significant association with elevated triglycerides, decreased HDL, elevated non-HDL and total cholesterol, elevated fasting glucose, and elevated blood pressure. The comorbidities DTC-risk WTHR and DTC-increased WC were associated with increased triglycerides and non-HDL cholesterol. DTC alone was associated with elevated systolic blood pressure. DTC-general obesity comorbidity is more frequently associated with the cardiometabolic risk factors explored than DTC-central obesity comorbidity. Smoking cessation can be a cost-effective intervention in this risk comorbidity.