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Epidemiology and Population Health

Association of weight loss with cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure: A meta-analysis

International Journal of Obesity (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

A consensus has not been reached on the association between weight loss and survival outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF). This meta-analysis aimed to assess the association of weight loss with cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in patients with HF.

Methods

Two authors independently searched the articles indexed in the PubMed and Embase databases up to May 7, 2023. Post hoc analysis of randomized controlled trials or observational studies that reported the utility of weight loss in predicting cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in patients with HF were included.

Results

Thirteen studies reporting on 12 articles involving 26,164 patients with HF were included. A comparison of weight loss with stable weight showed that the pooled adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality was 1.75 (95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.43-2.14). Subgroup analysis revealed that weight loss was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality, irrespective of whether patients were overweight/obese (HR 1.76; 95% CI 1.41-2.20) or not (HR 1.90; 95% CI 1.14-3.14). The pooled adjusted HR of cardiovascular mortality was 1.64 (95% CI 1.18-2.28) for patients with weight loss compared to those without.

Conclusions

Weight loss is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in patients with HF. Assessing weight changes can provide prognostic information for patients with HF.

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Data availability

The available data and materials section refers to the raw data used in this study are included in the manuscript and supplemental material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vascular and Thyroid Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, China

    Xinyue Wu, Yuxin Wang & Xinhua Hu

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  1. Xinyue Wu
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  2. Yuxin Wang
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Contributions

Study conception/design and interpretation of data: Xinhua Hu; Literature search, data extraction, quality assessment, statistical analysis: Xinyue Wu and Yuxin Wang; Writing the manuscript: Xinyue Wu. Revising the manuscript: Yuxin Wang. All the authors approved the version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xinhua Hu.

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Wu, X., Wang, Y. & Hu, X. Association of weight loss with cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure: A meta-analysis. Int J Obes (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-024-01484-9

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