The influence of physical activity on risk of cardiovascular disease in people who are obese but metabolically healthy

Shinje Moon; Chang-Myung Oh; Moon-Ki Choi; Yoo-Kyung Park; Sukyung Chun; Minkyung Choi; Jae Myung Yu; Hyung Joon Yoo

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0185127

The influence of physical activity on risk of cardiovascular disease in people who are obese but metabolically healthy

PLoS One. 2017 Sep 26;12(9):e0185127. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185127. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Shinje Moon¹, Chang-Myung Oh², Moon-Ki Choi¹, Yoo-Kyung Park¹, Sukyung Chun², Minkyung Choi², Jae Myung Yu¹, Hyung Joon Yoo¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chuncheon, South Korea.
² Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, CHA Bundang Medical Center, School of Medicine CHA University, Pangyo, Seongnam, South Korea.

Abstract

The metabolic outcomes of metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) remain controversial. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of physical activity on the cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes of MHO. The study included participants who were followed for 10 years and recruited from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES), a population-based cohort study. Participants with previously recorded CVDs or cancer, or who had received steroids or anticoagulants at baseline were excluded. A total of 8144 participants (3,942 men and 4,202 women) fulfilled inclusion criteria. In a multivariate Cox regression model adjusted for age and sex, MHO participants were not at elevated risk of CVD compared with their metabolically healthy non-obese (MHNO) counterparts (HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 0.96-1.71), although both the non-obese (HR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.19-1.90) and obese (HR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.48-2.30) participants with metabolic abnormalities were at elevated risk. However, in the subgroup analysis by physical activity, physically inactive MHO participants had a significantly higher HR for CVD events compared to active MHNO participants (HR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.03-2.30), while active MHO participants were not at elevated risk (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.70-1.89). Physically inactive MHO participants had significantly increased risk of CVD compared to physically active MHNO participants whereas physically active MHO participants did not.

MeSH terms

Adult
Cardiovascular Diseases / epidemiology*
Exercise*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Obesity / epidemiology*
Risk Factors

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the grant (C.M.O., 2016S-1) from the Korean Diabetes Association, Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2016R1A6A3A04010466 to C.M.O). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.