Women who were overweight at age 18 are at increased risk for sudden cardiac death, no matter what their current weight is, a new study reports.
Sudden cardiac death is an unexpected death that occurs within an hour of the first symptom. About 75 percent of victims have no known risk factors for heart disease, and it is often the first indication of cardiac illness in women.
The study, in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, followed 72,484 women, generally healthy at the start, from 1980 to 2012. Over the period, 454 suffered sudden cardiac death.
Compared with those with a body mass index of 21 to 22.9 at age 18, those with a B.M.I. of 23 to 29.9 had a 33 percent higher risk for sudden cardiac death; those with a B.M.I. of 30 to 35.9 had twice the risk; and those with a B.M.I. higher than 35 nearly four times the risk. These risks remained after adjusting for age, smoking, physical activity, hypertension, diabetes and many other variables. A body mass index of 18.5 to 25 is generally considered normal.
“We need to be focusing on weight gain at all ages of life,” said the lead author, Stephanie E. Chiuve, an associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “This starts with childhood and young adulthood.”
The study was observational, and the authors drew no conclusions about cause and effect.