As per a latest study, fat mass index is linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular events in people with diabetes. This is in contrast to the popular perception that body mass index (BMI) affects the health of heart.

Heart disease is a major cause of death worldwide, and obesity is a major risk factor.

Body mass index, a common measure of obesity, has been recently shown to be an imperfect metric because it does not distinguish between lean muscle mass and fat mass.

When issues related to obesity are studied, suitable metrics that describe obesity accurately are extremely important.

The research, published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), showed that people with Type-2 diabetes and higher fat mass were at increased risk of major cardiovascular events compared to people with lower fat mass.

Also read: Small height makes you prone for type-2 diabetes

“We found that the protective effect of lean body mass was observed in participants with a lean BMI of less than 16.7 kg/m2,” said Xinqun Hu, Departments of Cardiovascular Medicine and Emergency Medicine, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, Hunan, China.

“The increased risk of cardiovascular disease in (type 2 diabetes mellitis) patients with lower BMI may be attributed to the adverse effect of lower lean body mass that overrides the positive effect of lower fat mass.”

For the study, the researchers analysed data on 10,251 adults from the ACCORD study, a randomized controlled trial in the US looking at diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

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