image: Having a lower body-mass index (BMI), but also with having a higher waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), is associated with worse outcomes among Asian patients with heart failure, according to a study published September 24 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Carolyn Lam of the National Heart Centre Singapore, and colleagues.
Having a lower body-mass index (BMI), but also having a higher waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), is associated with worse outcomes among Asian patients with heart failure, according to a study published September 24 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Carolyn Lam of the National Heart Centre Singapore, and colleagues. As noted by the authors, the combined use of BMI and abdominal measures could potentially inform heart failure management better, especially among the particularly vulnerable patients with low BMI and high WHtR in Asia.
Among heart failure patients, Asian patients are more likely to be lean (have a low BMI,
Higher BMI was associated with better outcomes but higher WhtR was associated with worse outcomes. In combined analysis, the "lean-fat" subgroup with low BMI and high WHtR (?0.55) made up 13.9% of the heart failure population in Asia, were more likely to be women (35.4%) from low-income countries (47.7%), predominantly in South/Southeast Asia, had the highest prevalence of diabetes (46%), worst quality-of-life scores (63.3 ± 24.2), and highest rate of composite events ([51/232], 22%), compared to other subgroups (p
According to the authors, clear national policies that underscore the prevention of abdominal obesity and the promotion of a healthy BMI through awareness, education and lifestyle modification should be championed. The authors note that because these analyses were based on data from multinational registries, they may be affected by selection bias and unmeasured confounding.