Research

Mixed

In patients with established incident cardiovascular disease, higher body mass index (overweight and obesity) is associated with a more favorable prognosis for subsequent stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and mortality (CVD-related and all-cause) compared to normal BMI, regardless of metabolic health status.

If you have had a heart attack, stroke, or peripheral vascular disease, being overweight or obese is not necessarily a bad thing for your survival. In fact, this large study shows that having extra weight is linked to a lower risk of dying from heart issues or other causes compared to being normal weight. Do not aggressively try to lose weight without consulting your doctor, as maintaining energy reserves might be protective. Instead, focus on controlling blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
In patients with incident CVD, overweight and obesity were related to a more favourable prognosis for subsequent stroke, PVD and mortality (CVD-related and all-cause) irrespective of the presence of other metabolic risk factors.
Ralph Kwame Akyea et al. · Journal of Cachexia Sarcopenia and Muscle · 2023

Why this rating

Large nationwide population-based cohort (n=130,685) with long follow-up (median 13 years) and robust multivariable adjustments, though observational design limits causal inference.

Source

Obesity, metabolic health and clinical outcomes after incident cardiovascular disease: A nationwide population‐based cohort study

Ralph Kwame Akyea et al. · Journal of Cachexia Sarcopenia and Muscle · 2023

DOI 10.1002/jcsm.13340

cohort · n=130685Cited 28×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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