Women Who Are Overweight, Obese as Young Adults Have a Higher Risk of Stroke Before 55 Years of Age

A recent study shows that women who are overweight or obese between the ages of 14 and 31 years are more likely to suffer ischemic stroke before 55 years of age. The results were published in Stroke, the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.

The analysis, which took place from 1980 to 2020, consisted of 10,491 people in their 50s (49% women). Body mass index (BMI) was measured at age 14, age 31, or both. The researchers used sex- and age-based norms to classify participants as overweight or obese based on their BMI. They pinpointed ischemic strokes and transient ischemic attacks between age 14 and age 54 using national hospital and death registers. The key end points of interest were participants’ first stroke, death, and moving abroad or the end of year 2020, whichever came first.

Following analysis, the study found:

• Women impacted by obesity at age 14 were 87% more likely to suffer an early clot-caused stroke or mini-stroke, while those with obesity at age 31 were 167% more likely to have a stroke compared with those at an appropriate weight.
• Women with obesity at age 31 had a 3.5-times increased risk of bleeding stroke, and men with obesity at age 31 had a more than 5.5-times increased risk of bleeding stroke.

“Our findings suggest that being overweight may have long-term health effects even if the excess weight is temporary,” said lead study author Ursula Mikkola, BM, an investigator in the Research Unit of Population Health at the University of Oulu in Finland, via a press release. “Health care professionals should pay attention to overweight and obesity in young people and work with them to develop healthier eating patterns and physical activity. However, conversations with teens and young adults about weight should be approached in a nonjudgmental and nonstigmatizing manner.”