Adiposity throughout the life course and risk of venous thromboembolism

Abstract Objective Adult body mass index (BMI) is strongly associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE), however whether earlier-life adiposity or other measures of adult adiposity are associated with VTE risk remains largely unknown. Materials and methods We evaluated associations of childhood somatotype, BMI in early adulthood, adult adiposity, and change in weight since early adulthood with incident VTE risk over ≥20 years of follow-up among 205,935 participants from Nurses' Health Studies (NHS/NHS II) and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS), ages 29–76 at baseline. We estimated multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for VTE using Cox proportional hazards models. Results and conclusions Somatotype in childhood and young adulthood BMI were not significantly associated with VTE risk, after accounting for adult BMI. Adult BMI was strongly associated with VTE in all three cohorts (e.g., multivariable-adjusted HRs comparing ≥35 kg/m 2 vs. 2 : NHS:3.03[95% CI: 2.58, 3.56], NHS II:3.82[95% CI: 3.24, 4.51], HPFS:2.81 [95% CI: 2.08, 3.80]; all p-trends