Association Between Obesity and Heart Failure and Related Atrial Fibrillation: Patient-Level Data Comparisons of Two Cohort Studies

Purpose: Heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) frequently coexist, with over 50% patients with HF having AF, while one-third of those with AF develop HF. Differences in obesity-mediated association between HF and HF-related AF among Asians and Europeans were evaluated.

Materials And Methods: Using the Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening (K-NHIS-HealS) cohort and the UK Biobank, we included 394801 Korean and 476883 UK adults, respectively aged 40-70 years. The incidence and risk of HF were evaluated based on body mass index (BMI).

Results: The proportion of obese individuals was significantly higher in the UK Biobank cohort than in the K-NHIS-HealS cohort (24.2% vs. 2.7%, <0.001). The incidence of HF and HF-related AF was higher among the obese in the UK than in Korea. The risk of HF was higher among the British than in Koreans, with adjusted hazard ratios of 1.82 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.30-2.55] in K-NHIS-HealS and 2.00 (95% CI, 1.69-2.37) in UK Biobank in obese participants ( for interaction <0.001). A 5-unit increase in BMI was associated with a 44% greater risk of HF-related AF in the UK Biobank cohort (<0.001) but not in the K-NHIS-HealS cohort (=0.277).

Conclusion: Obesity was associated with an increased risk of HF and HF-related AF in both Korean and UK populations. The higher incidence in the UK population was likely due to the higher proportion of obese individuals.