A recent editorial calls on doctors to address the under recognized problem of malnutrition among individuals with obesity to help prevent early death from cardiovascular events.
A study has found that malnutrition is common among people with acute coronary syndrome, which is the sudden reduction of blood flow to the heart that causes angina or a heart attack.
The researchers found that malnutrition in these individuals was an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality and major cardiovascular events, such as stroke or another heart attack.
Surprisingly, they found that malnutrition was common even among those with overweight or obesity.
In an accompanying editorial, two cardiologists write that physicians commonly perceive malnutrition to be a problem that only affects people who are “undernourished” — in other words, underweight.
In fact, individuals with overweight or obesity are often malnourished as a result of their low intake of micronutrients and the poor quality of the foods that they eat.
“Malnutrition is a largely under recognized and undertreated condition in patients with increased body mass index, as increased abdominal girth is too often mistaken for over nutrition rather than under nutrition,” says Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, CO.
“It’s important to dispel the thought that weight is correlated with food quality and that [patients with obesity] are not at risk of malnutrition,” says Dr. Freeman.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that 462 million adults have underweight worldwide, whereas 1.9 billion have overweight or obesity. However, they note that the term malnutrition can apply to both of these groups.
The researchers in Spain conducted a retrospective analysis of 5,062 people admitted to the University Hospital of Vigo with acute coronary syndrome.
They calculated the body mass index (BMI) of each person and scored their nutritional status using three standard measures: the Controlling Nutritional Status score, the Nutritional Risk Index, and the Prognostic Nutritional Index.
These measures use different combinations of values, such as BMI and blood levels of albumin, white blood cells, and cholesterol, to estimate the quality of the nutrition that a person is receiving.
