Online ISSN: 2515-8260

The effect of body mass index (BMI) on the mortality among patients with stroke

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Salah Elsayed1 , Muath Othman2

Abstract

Stroke is considered one of the leading causesof morbidity and mortality in many countries. Many studies investigated the outcomes after the occurrence of stroke. Some of those research studies indicated that obesity and the increasein the bodymass index areestablished risk factors for mortality among stroke patients. However, the results of these studies were inconsistent.The main aim of this review article was to examine the association between bodymass index and mortality among stroke patients. The majority of the studies had shown a possible effect of overweight on mortality among stroke patients; the evidence regarding the association's presence is limited.On the other hand, the majority of the studies had shown a protective effect of obesity (mild obesity, bodymass index between 30-35) onreducingthe risk of mortality among stroke patients. This means underweight stroke patients have more risk of mortality. Thus, the argument regarding the effect of high bodymass index on mortality has been explained by the obesity paradox. However, most of those studies were observational, and results could be attributed to the methodological flaw. There is a need to well-designed prospective studies that to overcome the limitation of the previous studies.

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