Risk of symptomatic gallstones in women with severe obesity
Open Access
- 1 March 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Elsevier in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- Vol. 55 (3), 652-658
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/55.3.652
Abstract
Although obesity is a well-recognized risk factor for gallstones, the excess risks associated with higher levels of obesity and recent weight change are poorly quantified. We evaluated these issues in the Nurses' Health Study. Among 90 302 women aged 34–59 y at baseline followed from 1980 to 1988, 2122 cases of newly diagnosed symptomatic gallstones occurred during 607 104 person-years of follow-up. From 1980 to 1986, 488 cases of newly diagnosed unremoved gallstones were documented. We observed a striking monotonie increase in gallstone disease risk with obesity; women with a body mass index (BMI) > 45 kg/m2 had a sevenfold excess risk compared with those whose BMI was < 24 kg/m2. Women with a BMI > 30 kg/m2 had a yearly gallstone incidence of > 1% and those with a BMI ≥ 45 kg/m2 had a rate of ≈2%/y. Recent weight loss was associated with a modestly increased risk after adjustment for BMI before weight loss. Current smoking was an independent risk factor; women smoking ≥ 35 cigarettes/d had a relative risk of 1.5 (95% CI 1.2–1.9).Keywords
This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- Estrogen replacement therapy and coronary heart disease: A quantitative assessment of the epidemiologic evidencePreventive Medicine, 1991
- Validity of Self-Reported Waist and Hip Circumferences in Men and WomenEpidemiology, 1990
- Weight, Diet, and the Risk of Symptomatic Gallstones in Middle-Aged WomenNew England Journal of Medicine, 1989
- Abdominal symptoms and gallstone disease: An epidemiological investigationHepatology, 1989
- Effects of Ursodeoxycholic Acid and Aspirin on the Formation of Lithogenic Bile and Gallstones during Loss of WeightNew England Journal of Medicine, 1988
- Epidemiology and Natural History of GallstonesSeminars in Liver Disease, 1983
- Risk factors for gall-bladder disease: a cohort study of young women attending family planning clinicsJournal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 1982
- Effects of obesity and caloric intake on biliary lipid metabolism in man.JCI Insight, 1975
- Pigment vs cholesterol cholelithiasis: Clinical and epidemiological aspectsDigestive Diseases and Sciences, 1975
- The epidemiology of gallbladder disease: Observations in the Framingham studyJournal of Chronic Diseases, 1966