• Louisa Gnatiuc, Jesus Alegre-Díaz, Rachel Wade, Raúl Ramirez-Reyes, Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Adrián Garcilazo-Ávila, Erwin Chiquete, Carlos Gonzáles-Carballo, Martha Solano-Sanchez, Robert Clarke, Rory Collins, William G Herrington, Michael Hill, Sarah Lewington, Richard Peto, Jonathan R Emberson, and Pablo Kuri-Morales.
• University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (L.G., R.W., R.C., R.C., W.G.H., M.H., S.L., R.P., J.R.E.).
• Ann. Intern. Med. 2019 Sep 17; 171 (6): 397-405.

BackgroundSome reports suggest that body mass index (BMI) is not strongly associated with mortality in Hispanic populations.ObjectiveTo assess the causal relevance of adiposity to mortality in Mexican adults, avoiding reverse causality biases.DesignProspective study.Setting2 Mexico City districts.Participants159 755 adults aged 35 years and older at recruitment, followed for up to 14 years. Participants with a hemoglobin A1c level of 7% or greater, diabetes, or other chronic diseases were excluded.MeasurementsBMI, waist-to-hip ratio, waist circumference, and cause-specific mortality. Cox regression, adjusted for confounders, yielded mortality hazard ratios (HRs) after at least 5 years of follow-up and before age 75 years.ResultsAmong 115 400 participants aged 35 to <75 years at recruitment, mean BMI was 28.0 kg/m2 (SD, 4.1 kg/m2) in men and 29.6 kg/m2 (SD, 5.1 kg/m2) in women. The association of BMI at recruitment with all-cause mortality was J-shaped, with the minimum at 25 to <27.5 kg/m2. Above 25 kg/m2, each 5-kg/m2 increase in BMI was associated with a 30% increase in all-cause mortality (HR, 1.30 [95% CI, 1.24 to 1.36]). This association was stronger at ages 40 to <60 years (HR, 1.40 [CI, 1.30 to 1.49]) than at ages 60 to <75 years (HR, 1.24 [CI, 1.17 to 1.31]) but was not materially affected by sex, smoking, or other confounders. The associations of mortality with BMI and waist-to-hip ratio were similarly strong, and each was weakened only slightly by adjustment for the other. Waist circumference was strongly related to mortality and remained so even after adjustment for BMI and hip circumference.LimitationAnalyses were limited to mortality.ConclusionGeneral, and particularly abdominal, adiposity were strongly associated with mortality in this Mexican population.Primary Funding SourceMexican Health Ministry, Mexican National Council of Science and Technology, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, and Kidney Research UK.

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