Relationships between changes in weight and changes in cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged French subjects: effect of dieting

OBJECTIVE: To investigate relationships between changes in weight and changes in cardiovascular risk factors in adults, taking intentionality of weight loss into account. DESIGN: Longitudinal study in middle-aged French subjects from the SU.VI.MAX cohort. SUBJECTS: A total of 1773 men (body mass index (BMI) 25.4 +/- 3.1 kg/m(2), mean+/-s.d) and 2316 women (BMI 23.3 +/- 3.8 kg/m(2)) aged 45 y and over at baseline. MEASURMENTS: Weight, height, blood pressure, serum total cholesterol and fasting blood glucose were measured at baseline and after a 2 y follow-up. Self-reported dieting in order to lose weight, smoking status, leisure-time physical activity, health events and current treatments were assessed through questionnaires. RESULTS: In multivariate analyses, weight change was positively associated with changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.0002 in women, P = .0001 in men) and with changes in serum total cholesterol (P = 0.008 in women, P = 0.02 in men), after adjustment for age, baseline level of each cardiovascular risk factor and current treatments. For example, in men, a weight loss of 5 kg was associated with a. decrease of 2.5 mmHg in systolic blood pressure and of 1.5 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure. Taking into account self-reported dieting did not modify these associations. CONCLUSIONS: In both genders, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and serum cholesterol increased with weight gain and decreased with weight loss, independently of the intentionality to lose weight. At the population level, modest weight loss may have a substantial impact on cardiovascular risk, and preventing even modest weight gain in adults is an important goal in terms of public health.