Researchers have found in a new study that Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension who were also overweight or obese had a higher incidence of hospitalization and worse health-related quality of life, compared with those with normal weight. The findings further revealed that patients with PAH as well as obesity or overweight had a decreased risk for transplant or death, compared with those with normal weight.
The study has appeared in the in the journal of Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
Obesity is associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), but its impact on outcomes such as health-related quality of life (HRQoL), hospitalizations, and survival are not well understood. Effective treatment of pulmonary hypertension requires a systematic diagnostic approach to identify all reversible mechanisms. Many of these mechanisms are relevant to those afflicted with obesity. The unique mechanisms of PH in the obese include obstructive sleep apnea, obesity hypoventilation syndrome, anorexigen use, cardiomyopathy of obesity, and pulmonary thromboembolic disease. Novel mechanisms of PH in the obese include endothelial dysfunction and hyperuricemia. A wide range of effective therapies exists to mitigate the disability of PH in the obese.
Therefore, the study was carried out to assess the effect of obesity on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), hospitalizations and survival in patients with PAH, describes Jeff Min, the lead author.
The authors performed a cohort study including a total of 767 subjects having a mean age of 57 years out of which 74% were female, 33% overweight, and 40% obese, with a median follow-up duration of 527 days. All the adults had PAH noted from the Pulmonary Hypertension Association Registry, a prospective multicenter registry.
Multivariate linear mixed-effects regression was used to examine the relationship between weight categories and HRQoL.
The following results were observed-
a. Overweight and obese patients had higher baseline e10 scores (worse HRQoL), which persisted over time.
b. The overweight and obese have a trend towards an increased incidence of hospitalizations compared to normal weight.
c. Overweight and obese patients had a lower risk of transplant or death as compared to normal weight patients.
Hence, the investigators concluded that "overweight and obese patients had worse disease-specific HRQoL despite better transplant-free survival compared to normal-weight patients."
Future interventions should address the specific needs of these patients exclaimed Min.
For further reference log on to:
Min J, et al. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2020;doi:10.1513/AnnalsATS.202006-612OC.