The relationship between elevated body mass index and lethal ischemic heart disease: an eleven-year retrospective review of medical examiners' adult autopsies in Kentucky.

Both childhood and adult overweight (OW) and obesity (OB) currently loom unabated at epidemic proportions in the United States (US), to which Kentucky (KY) is a leading contributor. These conditions are significant risk factors for development of ischemic heart disease (IHD), the primary cause of natural death in the US. These mortality statistics (see below), combined with Kentucky's significantly prevalent OW/OB population, prompted this investigation of the presumptive correlation between body mass index (BMI) and IHD in the medical examiners' office (MEO) autopsy cohort. The goals of this study were threefold: (1) to identify all adults between 19 and 85 years old autopsied over an 11-year period (1991-2001) at KY MEO whose deaths were attributed to IHD; (2) to establish the BMI (kg/m2 ), a gauge of fat mass, at death; and (3) to determine whether there is a statistically significant relationship between elevated (or "unhealthy") BMI--categorized as either OW or OB--and an increased risk for the development of IHD-associated premature death in KY. This report demonstrates a significant correlation between death in adulthood attributed to IHD and unhealthy BMI in KY autopsy cases in the MEO.