The association of obesity with cardiovascular disease risk and risk-enhancing factors

Obesity is a global epidemic with rapidly increasing prevalence over the recent years. Its rise is paralleled by a similar trend in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and events, which have become the leading cause of death in many countries.

This review focuses on the relationship between obesity, CVD risk, and risk factors and the management strategies that can treat both the resulting co-morbidities as well as the underlying obesity.

Obesity is associated with overall CVD events and atherosclerosis as well as the individual risk factors including diabetes mellitus, obstructive sleep apnea, dyslipidemia, hypertension, arrhythmias, preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. Treatment with lifestyle interventions, approved medications and surgical procedures lead to improvements in CVD risk factors and events, proportional to the rates' and the effects' duration of weight loss achieved. Resources used to prepare this review include the latest international clinical practice guidelines, the largest meta-analyses of prospective, randomized, controlled trials, observational studies and obesity treatment studies, along with pertinent review articles on the effects of obesity and its treatments on CVD risk and risk factors.

Diagnosis and management of CVD risk factors is an important aspect of an obesity management plan along with the overarching goal of addressing the causes of this global epidemic through collaboration and incorporation of preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies individualized to the ethnic, social and financial needs of each population with the aim to reduce the prevalence of CVD risk factors and the incidence of CVD events.