Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Aug;6(8):701-709.
doi: 10.1016/j.jchf.2018.05.018. Epub 2018 Jul 11.

The Association of Obesity and Cardiometabolic Traits With Incident HFpEF and HFrEF

Affiliations

The Association of Obesity and Cardiometabolic Traits With Incident HFpEF and HFrEF

Nazir Savji et al. JACC Heart Fail. 2018 Aug.

Abstract

Objectives: This study evaluated the associations of obesity and cardiometabolic traits with incident heart failure with preserved versus reduced ejection fraction (HFpEF vs. HFrEF). Given known sex differences in HF subtype, we examined men and women separately.

Background: Recent studies suggest that obesity confers greater risk of HFpEF versus HFrEF. Contributions of associated metabolic traits to HFpEF are less clear.

Methods: We studied 22,681 participants from 4 community-based cohorts followed for incident HFpEF versus HFrEF (ejection fraction ≥50% vs. <50%). We evaluated the association of body mass index (BMI) and cardiometabolic traits with incident HF subtype using Cox models.

Results: The mean age was 60 ± 13 years, and 53% were women. Over a median follow-up of 12 years, 628 developed incident HFpEF and 835 HFrEF. Greater BMI portended higher risk of HFpEF compared with HFrEF (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.34 per 1-SD increase in BMI; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.24 to 1.45 vs. HR: 1.18; 95% CI: 1.10 to 1.27). Similarly, insulin resistance (homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance) was associated with HFpEF (HR: 1.20 per 1-SD; 95% CI: 1.05 to 1.37), but not HFrEF (HR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.88 to 1.11; p < 0.05 for difference HFpEF vs. HFrEF). We found that the differential association of BMI with HFpEF versus HFrEF was more pronounced among women (p for difference HFpEF vs. HFrEF = 0.01) when compared with men (p = 0.34).

Conclusions: Obesity and related cardiometabolic traits including insulin resistance are more strongly associated with risk of future HFpEF versus HFrEF. The differential risk of HFpEF with obesity seems particularly pronounced among women and may underlie sex differences in HF subtypes.

Keywords: HFpEF; heart failure; insulin resistance; obesity; sex differences.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cumulative incidence of (A) HFpEF and (B) HFrEF in men and women with and without obesity.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk of HFpEF or HFrEF in women and men across quartiles of BMI. P-values represent P for trend.

Comment in

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Mozaffarian D, Benjamin EJ, Go AS, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2016 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2016;133:e38–360. - PubMed
    1. Bursi F, Weston SA, Redfield MM, et al. Systolic and diastolic heart failure in the community. Jama. 2006;296:2209–16. - PubMed
    1. Oktay AA, Rich JD, Shah SJ. The emerging epidemic of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Current heart failure reports. 2013;10:401–10. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kenchaiah S, Evans JC, Levy D, et al. Obesity and the risk of heart failure. The New England journal of medicine. 2002;347:305–13. - PubMed
    1. Wang YC, Liang CS, Gopal DM, et al. Preclinical Systolic and Diastolic Dysfunctions in Metabolically Healthy and Unhealthy Obese Individuals. Circulation Heart failure. 2015;8:897–904. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding