Lack of evidence for obesity paradox in patients with cardiovascular disease: A UK BioBank cohort study
An erratum to this article was published (Diabetes Obes Metab, Jan 2026 ↗)
Authors' conclusion
Increased obesity does not show a protective effect in patients with CVD. Previously reported obesity paradox in observational studies may be a result of confounding or other biases.
Study context
- Population
- Participants with cardiovascular disease (CVD) from the UK Biobank
- Participants
- 85,926 participants
- Exposure
- Body mass index (BMI), BF% and WHR adjusted for BMI vs CVD mortality
- Outcome
- CVD mortality
- Follow-up
- Median 13.6 years
Methodological detailsUK Biobank, Mendelian randomisation using polygenic risk scores as instrumental variables
- UK Biobank
- Mendelian randomisation using polygenic risk scores as instrumental variables
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
CVD deaths
5432
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Sensitivity analyses by sex, age group, disease type, and FTO rs1558902 single-variant instrument
- Similar results
Original publication
Lack of evidence for obesity paradox in patients with cardiovascular disease: A UK BioBank cohort study. Diabetes Obes Metab. Published 29 July 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →