A recent study published in PLOS Medicine revealed that greater obesity duration was associated with worse values for all cardiometabolic disease risk factors such as SBP and DBP, HDL-C, and HbA1c in mid-adulthood.

      The body mass index (BMI) and cardiometabolic disease risk factor data from 20,746 participants enrolled in 3 British birth cohort studies: the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD), the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS), and the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) was used for the study. Within each cohort, individual life course BMI trajectories were created between 10 and 40 years of age, and from these, age of obesity onset, duration spent obese (range 0 to 30 years), and cumulative obesity severity were derived. Obesity duration was examined in relation to a number of cardiometabolic disease risk factors collected in mid-adulthood; SBP, DBP, (HDL-C), and HbA1c.

      The study findings show a stronger association of obesity duration with HbA1c: HbA1c levels in those with obesity for <5 years were relatively higher by 5% (95% CI: 4, 6), compared with never obese, increasing to 20% (95% CI: 17, 23) higher in those with obesity for 20 to 30 years.

      According to the investigators, the findings are important as they suggest that health policy recommendations aimed at preventing early onset obesity, and therefore reducing lifetime obesity exposure, may help reduce the risk for diabetes.