Obesity is an established risk factor for heart disease; however, it remains unclear how fat deposition in obesity alters the structure and function of the heart in older adults. A new paper published in the European Heart Journal discusses cardiac outcomes in individuals between 60 and 64 years of age following fat accumulation in early or mid-adulthood. Study: Adulthood adiposity affects cardiac structure and function in later life .
Image Credit: Halfpoint / Shutterstock.com About the study The current study examines the postulate that adiposity before the target age of 60-64 is associated with long-term negative cardiac outcomes. The study included 1,690 individuals who were part of the National Survey of Health and Development birth cohort, all of whom were White British adults.
All study participants were repeatedly measured for adiposity. Both body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) values were calculated throughout the study participants' adult lives from the age of 20. Between the ages of 60 and 64, an echocardiographic evaluation of heart structure and function was performed.
These parameters included left ventricle (LV) structure/mass, relative wall thickness, internal LV diameter (LVIDd), and function during heart diastole. Left atrial volume indexed to body surface area (LAVi) was also measured with LV functional characteristics such as the systolic ejection fraction and myocardial contraction fraction (MCF). Together, these measurements were used to c.