Abstract
BACKGROUND: The growing prevalence of obesity is expected to increase the burden of coronary artery disease. This study examined the prevalence of overweight and obesity in patients with a first-time diagnosis of obstructive coronary artery disease in a contemporary population. The association of body-mass-index (BMI) with age, traditional risk factors, and the presence of multivessel disease were explored. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using the Danish Nationwide registries, we identified 49,733 patients with a first-time diagnosis of obstructive coronary artery disease in the period 2012-2018. We investigated the association between BMI and coronary risk factors by multivariate logistic regression. Mean age was 65.8 ± 11.8 years, mean BMI was 27.5 kg/m(2) ± 7.2, and 73.2 % were men. 66.3 % had a BMI ≥25 kg/m(2) and 1.3 % were underweight. The prevalence of patients with BMI ≥25 kg/m(2) decreased with increasing age and was 69 % in patients <50 year vs. 46.2 % in patients ≥80 years (p < 0.001). In all age groups, higher odds of BMI ≥25 kg/m(2) were observed in males, former smokers, and patients with hypertension. In multivariate logistic regression, BMI ≥25 kg/m(2) was not associated with presence of multivessel disease (p = 0.74). CONCLUSION: In this large, nationwide study, 66.3 % of patients with first time diagnosis of obstructive coronary disease had BMI ≥25 kg/m(2). Young patients had higher BMI and were more likely to be current smokers. Overweight or obesity was independently associated with the presence of diabetes and hypertension. BMI ≥25 kg/m(2) was not independently associated with the presence of multivessel disease.