Abstract
Context
Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) is a dynamic condition.
Objective
To evaluate the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) among people with MHO according to its longitudinal change.
Design
Observational study.
Setting
A nationwide population-based cohort.
Participants
A total of 514 866 people from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort.
Intervention
The initial presence and changes of obesity (using body mass index [BMI] and waist circumference [WC]) and metabolic health status.
Main outcome Measure
Incident CKD from 2011 to 2015.
Results
Of the people classified as MHO at baseline (BMI criteria), 47.6% remained as MHO in 2011 and 2012, whereas 12.1%, 5.5%, and 34.8% were classified as metabolically healthy, non-obese (MHNO), metabolically unhealthy, non-obese, and metabolically unhealthy, obese, respectively. The risk of incident CKD in the baseline MHO group was higher than that in the MHNO group (hazard ratio, 1.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-1.36). However, when transition was taken into account, people who converted to MHNO were not at increased risk (hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.72-1.32), whereas the stable MHO group and the groups that evolved to metabolically unhealthy status had a higher risk of incident CKD than the stable MHNO group. When the risk was analyzed using WC criteria, it showed a similar pattern to BMI criteria except for the stable MHO group.
Conclusions
MHO was a dynamic condition, and people with MHO constituted a heterogeneous group. Although the MHO phenotype was generally associated with incident CKD, maintenance of metabolic health and weight reduction might alleviate the risk of CKD.
Metabolically Healthy Obesity and Development of Chronic Kidney Disease
