Obesity and large waist size increases risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new research shows.
German and American researchers examined the medical data of 113,279 people aged between 50 and 70. None of the participants had COPD, cancer or heart disease when the study began in 1995. The researchers collected information on people's waist and hip circumference, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity levels.
When the participants were examined after 10 years, 3,648 people had developed COPD. Then the team concluded that men with a large waist circumference measurement of more than 118 cm and women with a measurement of over 110 cm had a 72 percent increased risk of getting COPD.
"We observed a stronger positive relation with abdominal body fat than with total body fat and COPD," said Dr. Gundula Behrens, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany, in a press release. "In particular, overweight as measured by BMI, emerged as a significant predictor of increased risk of COPD only among those with a large waist circumference."
The large waist measurement upped COPD risk for smokers and non-smokers, researchers noted. However, those with larger waist circumference but physically active five times a week, had a 29 percent reduced risk of the condition.
The findings also showed that underweight people too had 56 percent increased chances of developing COPD.
The only solution to prevent developing COPD is to maintain a healthy weight, researchers said.
"Our findings suggest that next to smoking cessation and the prevention of smoking initiation, meeting guidelines for body weight, body shape and physical activity level may represent important individual and public health opportunities to decrease the risk of COPD. Physicians should encourage their patients to adhere to these guidelines as a means of preventing chronic diseases in general and possibly COPD in particular," the authors stated.
The study, 'Body size and physical activity in relation to incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease'" was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
