Heart Failure Survival Higher in Obese, Overweight Patients

HealthDay News — Obese patients with heart failure appear to live longer than people of normal weight who develop the condition, suggests findings from a new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Anita Deswal, MD, a professor of medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and colleagues collected data on 1,487 people with heart failure who took part in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, an ongoing study conducted in four U.S. communities. Among these patients, 35% were overweight and 47% were obese about four years prior to their diagnosis.

Over a decade of follow-up, 43% of the patients died. The researchers found that 38% of obese and 45% of overweight patients died during the 10-year period, compared with 51% of normal-weight patients. The difference held even if they also had other health issues such as diabetes or hypertension.

“At this time, the reasons for this beneficial association are not clear,” Deswal told HealthDay.

References

1. Khalid U et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014;64(25):2743-2749.