Increased body weight is a strong risk factor for hypertension. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was performed to estimate the effect of weight reduction on blood pressure overall and in population subgroups. Twenty-five randomized, controlled trials (comprising 34 strata) published between 1966 and 2002 with a total of 4874 participants were included. A random-effects model was ...

BACKGROUND Previous cross-sectional studies revealed that obesity is associated with lower health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between 5-year weight change and HRQOL. METHODS Data from 2414 Dutch men and women was collected. HRQOL was measured with the RAND-36. Weight change was calculated as change in weight between 1998 and 20...

In the general population, there is an inverse relationship between birth weight and adult systolic blood pressure. Because blood pressure in diabetic patients at least in part seems to be regulated by different mechanisms than in nondiabetic subjects, it is not known whether a similar correlation exists in diabetic individuals. Therefore, we obtained data on birth weight from original birth ce...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to examine the relationships between in-hospital and post-discharge body weight changes and outcomes among patients hospitalized for acute heart failure (AHF). BACKGROUND Body weight changes during and after hospitalization for AHF and the relationships with outcomes have not been well characterized. METHODS A post hoc analysis was performed of the ASCEND-HF (Ac...

BACKGROUND A small number of relatively small studies have found greater gestational weight gain to be associated with greater offspring body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)), but whether this association is caused by intrauterine mechanisms or by shared genetic and environmental risk factors for adiposity is unclear. OBJECTIVE The objective was to examine the association of greater maternal weig...

BACKGROUND Evaluation for obesity management in primary care is limited, and successful outcomes are from intensive clinical trials in hospital settings. AIM To determine to what extent measures of success seen in intensive clinical trials can be achieved in routine primary care. Primary outcome measures were weight change and percentage of patients achieving >or=5% loss at 12 and 24 months. ...

INTRODUCTION The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified the surveillance case definition of arthritis to a more stringent form in 2002. To date, the association between arthritis and obesity (an established risk factor for arthritis) has not been examined with the new definition. We describe the association between body mass index (BMI) (kg/m(2)) and arthritis using the new arthrit...

The authors investigated the shape, sex- and age-dependency, and possible confounding of the association between birth weight and systolic blood pressure (SBP) in 197,954 adults from 20 Nordic cohorts (birth years 1910-1987), one of which included 166,249 Swedish male conscripts. Random-effects meta-regression analyses were performed on estimates obtained from age- and sex-stratified analyses w...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have shown that both female and male obesity may delay time-to-pregnancy (TTP). Little is known about central adiposity or weight gain and fecundability in women. METHODS We examined the association between anthropometric factors and TTP among 1651 Danish women participating in an internet-based prospective cohort study of pregnancy planners (2007-2008). We categoriz...

In this prospective cohort study, based on 1,505 mother-infant pairs in rural Bangladesh, we evaluated the associations between early-life exposure to arsenic, cadmium, and lead, assessed via concentrations in maternal and child urine, and children’s weights and heights up to age 5 years, during the period 2001–2009. Concurrent and prenatal exposures were evaluated using linear regression analy...