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. 2022 Apr 21;19(9):5061.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095061.

The Metabolic Profiles of Metabolically Healthy Obese and Metabolically Unhealthy Obese South African Adults over 10 Years

Herculina Salome Kruger  1   2 , Zelda De Lange-Loots  1   2 , Iolanthé Marike Kruger  3 , Marlien Pieters  1   2
Affiliations

The Metabolic Profiles of Metabolically Healthy Obese and Metabolically Unhealthy Obese South African Adults over 10 Years

Herculina Salome Kruger et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Obesity is associated with an increased cardiometabolic risk, but some individuals maintain metabolically healthy obesity (MHO). The aims were to follow a cohort of black South African adults over a period of 10 years to determine the proportion of the group that maintained MHO over 10 years, and to compare the metabolic profiles of the metabolically healthy and metabolically unhealthy groups after the follow-up period. The participants were South African men (n = 275) and women (n = 642) from the North West province. The prevalence of obesity and the metabolic syndrome increased significantly. About half of the metabolically healthy obese (MHO) adults maintained MHO over 10 years, while 46% of the women and 43% of men became metabolically unhealthy overweight/obese (MUO) at the end of the study. The metabolic profiles of these MHO adults were similar to those of the metabolically healthy normal weight (MHNW) group in terms of most metabolic syndrome criteria, but they were more insulin resistant; their CRP, fibrinogen, and PAI-1act were higher and HDL-cholesterol was lower than the MHNW group. Although the metabolic profiles of the MUO group were less favourable than those of their counterparts, MHO is a transient state and is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk.

Keywords: Africa; cardiometabolic risk; metabolic syndrome; obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The distribution of participants among the four main BMI and metabolic health (MetS vs. no MetS) groups. BMI = body mass index, MetS = metabolic syndrome, MHO = metabolically healthy overweight/obesity, MUO = metabolically unhealthy overweight/obesity.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Metabolic profiles of the participants at follow-up according in the four main groups of BMI category and metabolic health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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