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Belly Fat Leads to Increased Heart Disease Risk
February 14, 2017
A genetic predisposition to higher abdominal adiposity, also known as an apple-shaped body, was causally linked to an increased risk for cardiometabolic traits and type 2 diabetes, according to a mendelian randomization study.
Using a polygenic risk score, there was an association between a 1-SD increase in the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), adjusted for BMI, and a 6.0 absolute risk increase for developing type 2 diabetes per 1,000 participant-years (95% CI, 4.4-7.8, P=7.30 x 10-21, number of participants with type 2 diabetes outcome=40,530, odds ratio 1.77, 95% CI 1.57-2.00), reported Connor A. Emdin, DPhil, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues.
A 1-SD increase in WHR, adjusted for BMI, was similarly associated with a 1.8 absolute risk increase for coronary heart disease (1.3-2.4, P=9.90 x 10-14, number of participants with coronary heart disease outcomes=66,440, OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.32-1.62), they wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The 1-SD increase in WHR ratio, adjusted for BMI, was linked to a 2-cm increase in waist circumference (1.5-2.4) and 4.1-cm decrease in hip circumference (3.8-4.4), the authors noted.
“Individuals with abdominal adiposity have previously been observed to have higher rates of development of coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes,” Emdin told MedPage Today via email. “However, it was unclear if abdominal adiposity causes heart disease and diabetes or if individuals with abdominal adiposity had heart disease and diabetes for other reasons. We were therefore surprised to see a relatively large effect of abdominal adiposity on risk of coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes.”
Emdin’s group wrote that “These results provide evidence supportive of a causal association between abdominal adiposity and these outcomes.”
“Mendelian randomization uses genetic variants, that are present from birth, to determine whether a given measurement (waist-to-hip ratio in this study) causes an outcome of interest (coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes in this study),” Emdin explained to MedPage Today. “Because genetic variants are present from birth, they are less likely to be influenced by confounding, a common limitation of observational studies.”
The researchers collected data from cross-section and case-control large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs), in addition to individual-level cross-sectional data. The summary-level data included data on over 400,000 participants from six GWASs, including GIANT, DIAGRAM, CARDIOGRAMplusC4D, GLGC, MAGIC, and CKDGen. The individual-level data was collected from 111,986 participants in the UK Biobank.
Read More – Source: Genetic Study Ties Belly Fat to T2D, Heart Disease | Medpage Today
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Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
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