Poster Presentation Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society Annual Scientific Conference 2024

Obesity prevalence, BMI variability and associated comorbidities in patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease (#220)

Ritesh Chimoriya 1 2 3 , Sean Miller 1 , Alison Zhu 1 2 , Marco Le Solano 2 , Sarah Aitken 1 2
  1. Concord Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
  2. Concord Institute of Academic Surgery, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Concord NSW 2139 , Sydney, NSW, Australia
  3. School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia

Background/Aims: Obesity is a significant risk factor for Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), associated with various comorbidities that may affect clinical outcomes. This study aimed to assess obesity prevalence, examine BMI variability, and investigate the associations between BMI and clinical factors in patients with PAD.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study included all patients with a pre-existing diagnosis of PAD, who received treatment at a public tertiary hospital in Sydney from June 2022 to June 2023. Data were collected by reviewing Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Descriptive analysis, Kendall Tau-b correlation and multiple linear regression were conducted.

Results: Of 427 participants with PAD, 233 (54.6%) had an EMR record of BMI and were included. The mean participant age was 73.1 years (95% CI: 71.5,74.7), with majority being male (69.5%) and culturally and linguistically diverse (60.5%). Chronic limb-threatening ischaemia was present in 55.5% of participants, and 28.8% had intermittent claudication. The average weight of participants was 78.4kg (95% CI: 75.8,80.8), resulting in a BMI of 27.6kg/m2 (95% CI: 26.8,28.4). Of all participants, 32.6% had obesity (BMI≥30kg/m2), 29.2% were overweight (BMI:25-29.9kg/m2), 32.6% had a BMI within normal range (18.5-24.9kg/m2), and 5.6% were underweight (BMI<18.5kg/m2). The presence of COPD was higher in underweight group (p=0.003), while the prevalence of OSA (p<0.001) and Type 2 diabetes (p=0.05) were higher in obesity group and were correlated with BMI categorisation (τb=0.272 and τb=0.142, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of OSA (B=7.61), increasing age (B=-0.09), COPD (B=-4.14), PAD stage (B=-1.81), gender (B=2.14), hypertension (B=1.72), and osteoporosis (B=-2.58) were significantly associated with BMI, collectively explaining 30.1% BMI variation in the final model (R2=0.301; F=27.04, p<0.001).

Conclusion: Overweight and obesity is prevalent (collectively 61.8%) among patients with PAD. BMI is associated with age, gender, severity of PAD, as well as presence of comorbidities such as OSA, COPD, hypertension and osteoporosis.