Skinny heart patients are FIVE times more likely to die than fat ones, study reveals
Major study shows it is the thinnest heart patients who are most at risk during heart operations
SKINNY heart patients are five times more likely to die than fat ones, a major study has revealed.
Researchers followed more than one million people for a month after they had undergone a common heart procedure.
They found being tubby boosted survival and slashed chances of a hospital return, beating those of a healthy weight in a phenomenon known as “the obesity paradox”.
All patients had undergone a cardiac catheterisation to investigate and unblock narrowed arteries.
Underweight patients had death rates of six per cent, compared with 2.3 per cent among those of normal weight, and 1.7 per cent of the overweight.
But the obese had the lowest rate of 1.2 per cent.
One theory is that larger people have greater energy reserves to beat their illness.
Study leader Dr Afnan Tariq said: “The obesity paradox has flummoxed researchers and our research also flips conventional wisdom that a higher body mass index should portend a worse outcome.”
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The findings were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona.