Combining Body Mass Index With Measures of Central Obesity in the Assessment of Mortality in Subjects With Coronary Disease

Objectives This study sought to assess the mortality risk of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) based on a combination of body mass index (BMI) and measures of central obesity. Background In CAD patients, mortality has been reported to vary inversely with BMI (“obesity paradox”). In contrast, central obesity is directly associated with mortality. Because of this bi-directional relationship, we hypothesized that CAD patients with normal BMI but with central obesity would have worse survival compared with subjects with other combinations of BMI and central adiposity. Methods We included 15,547 participants with CAD who took part in 5 studies from 3 continents. Multivariate stratified…