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(Circulation. 2009;120:1850-1857.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Epidemiology and Prevention

Anthropometry, Body Fat, and Venous Thromboembolism

A Danish Follow-Up Study

Marianne Tang Severinsen, MD; Søren Risom Kristensen, MD, MDSc; Søren Paaske Johnsen, MD, PhD; Claus Dethlefsen, MSc, PhD; Anne Tjønneland, MD, DMSc; Kim Overvad, MD, PhD

From the Department of Clinical Epidemiology (M.T.S., S.P.J., K.O.), Department of Clinical Biochemistry (S.R.K.), Department of Cardiology (C.D., K.O.), and Center for Cardiovascular Research (S.R.K., C.D., K.O.), Aalborg Hospital, Aarhus University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark; and Institute of Cancer Epidemiology (A.T.), Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Correspondence to M.T. Severinsen, Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aalborg Hospital, Sdr. Skovvej 15, DK-9000 Aalborg, Denmark. E-mail m.severinsen{at}rn.dk

Received March 18, 2009; accepted August 20, 2009.

Background— Obesity, measured as body mass index, is associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE). Body mass index is a marker of excess weight and correlates well with body fat content in adults; however, it fails to consider the distribution of body fat. We assessed the association between anthropometric variables and VTE.

Methods and Results— From 1993 to 1997, 27 178 men and 29 876 women 50 to 64 years of age were recruited into a Danish prospective study (Diet, Cancer, and Health). During 10 years of follow-up, the outcome of VTE events was identified in the Danish National Patient Registry and verified by review of medical records. Body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, and total body fat were measured at baseline. We used Cox proportional hazard models to assess the association between anthropometry and VTE. Age was used as a time axis, with further adjustment for smoking, physical activity, height, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cholesterol, and, among women, use of hormone replacement therapy. We verified 641 incident VTE events and found monotonic dose-response relationships between VTE and all anthropometric measurements in both sexes. In mutually adjusted analyses of waist and hip circumference, we found that hip circumference was positively associated with VTE in women but not in men, whereas waist circumference was positively associated with VTE in men but not in women.

Conclusions— All measurements of obesity are predictors of the risk for VTE. Positive associations were found between VTE and body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, and total body fat mass.

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Clinical Summaries
Circulation 2009 120: 1843-1844. [Extract] [Full Text]