Association Between Obesity and Lower Short- and Long-Term Mortality in Coronary Care Unit Patients: A Cohort Study of the MIMIC-III Database

INTRODUCTION: Obesity has long been considered an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), even in the COVID-19 pandemic. However, recent studies have found that a certain degree of obesity may be beneficial for patients who have already suffered from CVD, which is called the “obesity paradox”. Our objective was to investigate whether the obesity paradox existed in coronary care unit (CCU) patients and the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and short- and long-term mortality. METHODS: We performed a cohort analysis of 3,502 adult CCU patients from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC-III) database. The patients were divided into four groups according to the WHO BMI categories. Both multivariable logistic regression and Cox regression were used to reveal the relation between BMI and mortality. Subgroup analyses were performed based on Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) and age. RESULTS: After adjusting for confounders, obese patients had 33% and 30% lower mortality risk at 30-day and 1-year (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.89; HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.83; respectively) compared with normal-weight patients, while the underweight group were opposite, with 141% and 81% higher in short- and long-term (OR 2.41, 95% CI 1.37 to 4.12; HR 1.81, 95% CI 1.34 to 2.46; respectively). Overweight patients did not have a significant survival advantage at 30-day (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.70 to 1.17), but did have a 22% lower mortality risk at 1-year (HR 0.78; 95% CI 0.67 to 0.91). The results were consistent after being stratified by SAPS and age. CONCLUSION: Our study supports that obesity improved survival at both 30-day and 1-year after CCU admission, and the obesity paradox existed in CCU patients.