WEDNESDAY, Aug. 11, 2021 (HealthDay News) — The prevalence of obesity and overweight is high among patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), and many patients do not lose weight after discharge from CHD-related hospitalization, according to a study published online July 27 in the European Heart Journal: Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes.
Dirk De Bacquer, Ph.D., from Ghent University in Belgium, and colleagues describe weight changes among CHD patients based on data from 10,507 CHD patients. Weight changes were studied from hospital admission to the time of a study visit at least six months and less than 24 months later.
Overall, 34.9 and 46.0 percent of participants were obese and overweight, respectively, at hospitalization. Obesity occurred more often in women and was associated with more comorbidities. The researchers found that 19.5 percent of obese patients had lost ≥5 percent of weight by the time of the study visit, while an increase of ≥5 percent in weight was seen for 16.4 percent. Among overweight participants, weight gain was associated with physical inactivity, nonadherence to dietary recommendations, smoking cessation, elevated blood pressure, dyslipidemia, dysglycemia, and reduced quality of life. Of the obese patients, less than half were considering weight loss in the coming month.
“The prevalence of obesity and its management in the secondary prevention of CHD is a major challenge for a majority of patients and especially so in women and those who are younger,” the authors write. “Yet the benefits for patients who lost weight in our study, resulting in a healthier cardiovascular risk profile, are really worthwhile.”
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