Metabolic phenotypes of obesity: frequency, correlates and change over time in a cohort of postmenopausal women

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity 2017-01, Vol.41 (1), p.170-177
• Main Authors: Kabat, G C, Wu, W Y-Y, Bea, J W, Chen, C, Qi, L, Stefanick, M L, Chlebowski, R T, Lane, D S, Wactawski-Wende, J, Wassertheil-Smoller, S, Rohan, T E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/45/320; 692/163/2743/2037; 692/699/2743/393; 692/700/139/2818; 692/700/478/174; Aged; Analysis; Biomarkers - metabolism; Blood Glucose - metabolism; Body Fat Distribution; Body Mass Index; Cardiovascular Diseases - complications; Cardiovascular Diseases - metabolism; Complications and side effects; Epidemiology; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Genetic aspects; Health aspects; Health promotion; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Humans; Inflammation - complications; Inflammation - metabolism; Insulin Resistance; Internal Medicine; Markov Chains; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Metabolic disorders; Metabolic Syndrome - complications; Metabolic Syndrome - metabolism; Middle Aged; Obesity; Obesity, Abdominal - complications; Obesity, Abdominal - metabolism; Obesity, Abdominal - physiopathology; original-article; Phenotype; Phenotypes; Postmenopausal women; Postmenopause - metabolism; Preventive medicine; Prospective Studies; Public Health; Reproducibility of Results; Risk factors; United States; Womens health
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2016.179

Objective: The possibility that a subset of persons who are obese may be metabolically healthy—referred to as the ‘metabolically healthy obese’ (MHO) phenotype—has attracted attention recently. However, few studies have followed individuals with MHO or other obesity phenotypes over time to assess change in their metabolic profiles. The aim of the present study was to examine transitions over a 6-year period among different states defined simultaneously by body mass index (BMI) and the presence/absence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Methods: We used repeated measurements available for a subcohort of participants enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative ( N =3512) and followed for an average of 6 years to examine the frequency of different metabolic obesity phenotypes at baseline, the 6-year transition probabilities to other states and predictors of the risk of different transitions. Six phenotypes were defined by cross-tabulating BMI (18.5–