SynthesisJournal of obesity2016
The Obesity Paradox and Heart Failure: A Systematic Review of a Decade of Evidence.
Synthesis in Journal of obesity, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Re-appraisal of the obesity paradox in heart failure: a meta-analysis of individual data.Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society · 2021Pooled it
- Clinical significance of nutritional status in patients with chronic heart failure-a systematic review.Heart failure reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Late-life body mass index and amyloid interaction on cognitive decline in unimpaired older adults.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2026Trial
- Efficacy of dapagliflozin in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction according to body mass index.European journal of heart failure · 2021Trial
- Integrative Multi-Omics Profiling of Dynamic Body Mass Index-Systolic Blood Pressure Trajectories in Obesity for Precision Risk Stratification of Heart Failure Subtypes.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Body Mass Index, Clinical Outcomes, and Mortality in Heart Failure: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2026Article
- Maternal Obesity and Risk of Hospital Readmission in Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Cureus · 2026Article
- Long-term dynamic effect of body mass index on adverse cardiovascular outcomes with targeted maximum likelihood estimation method: result from the KNOW-CKD study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Associations of body mass index on worsening of heart failure and mortality in patients with heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction: a 10-year follow-up study (a NorthStar substudy).Cardiovascular diabetology · 2026Observational
- Beyond Weight Reduction: Obesity as a Therapeutic Pivot in Cardio-Renal-Metabolic Disease and Drug Management.European cardiology · 2026Article
- Obesity Is Associated with a Lower Risk of Mortality and Readmission in Heart Failure Patients with Diabetes.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Potential Implications of Body Mass Composition Changes in Heart Failure Patients in the Era of SGLT2i, GLP-1 RA, and GIP/GLP-1 RA.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Obesity as a risk factor for early-onset colorectal cancer: Evidence from a nationally representative database.World journal of clinical oncology · 2025Article
- Refining the link between obesity and heart failure: insights from GLP-1 receptor agonist trials and studies adopting direct adiposity measures.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2025Review
- Galectin-3 and Pentraxin-3 as Potential Biomarkers in Chronic Coronary Syndrome and Atrial Fibrillation: Insights from a 131-Patient Cohort.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Treatment options for heart failure in individuals with overweight or obesity: a review.Future cardiology · 2025Review
- Relationship between waist-to-height ratio and heart failure outcome: A single-centre prospective cohort study.ESC heart failure · 2025Article
- Obesity and Chronic Kidney Disease: The Dual Epidemic in Cardiovascular Health.European cardiology · 2025Review
- No Obesity Paradox for Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Heart Failure and Reduced Ejection Fraction: Insights from the VIDA Multicenter Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Glycaemic control and insulin therapy are significant confounders of the obesity paradox in patients with heart failure and diabetes mellitus.Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society · 2024Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is scientific consensus that obesity increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure. However, among persons who already have heart failure, outcomes seem to be better in obese persons as compared with lean persons: this has been termed the obesity paradox, the mechanisms of which remain unclear. This study systematically reviewed the evidence of the relationship between heart failure mortality (and survival) and weight status. Search of the PubMed/MEDLINE and EMBASE databases was done according to the PRISMA protocol. The initial search identified 9879 potentially relevant papers, out of which ten studies met the inclusion criteria. One study was a randomized clinical trial and 9 were observational cohort studies: 6 prospective and 3 retrospective studies. All studies used the BMI, WC, or TSF as measure of body fatness and NYHA Classification of Heart Failure and had single outcomes, death, as study endpoint. All studies included in review were longitudinal studies. All ten studies reported improved outcomes for obese heart failure patients as compared with their normal weight counterparts; worse prognosis was demonstrated for extreme obesity (BMI > 40 kg/m(2)). The findings of this review will be of significance in informing the practice of asking obese persons with heart failure to lose weight. However, any such recommendation on weight loss must be consequent upon more conclusive evidence on the mechanisms of the obesity paradox in heart failure and exclusion of collider bias.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.