Why a small waist might save your life if you have a pacemaker
Association of waist circumference with long-term all-cause mortality and cardiac death in patients with a pacemaker: a retrospective study
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
BMI had zero association with mortality in pacemaker patients.
For decades, BMI has been the go-to metric for obesity-related risk. But in this group, it was statistically irrelevant (P=0.930)—even though 37.6% had abdominal obesity.
Practical Takeaways
If you have a pacemaker or heart device, measure your waist. Men under 80 cm, women under 75 cm = significantly lower death risk.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
BMI had zero association with mortality in pacemaker patients.
For decades, BMI has been the go-to metric for obesity-related risk. But in this group, it was statistically irrelevant (P=0.930)—even though 37.6% had abdominal obesity.
Practical Takeaways
If you have a pacemaker or heart device, measure your waist. Men under 80 cm, women under 75 cm = significantly lower death risk.
Publication
Journal
BMC Cardiovascular Disorders
Year
2025
Authors
Xiaoyao Li, Keping Chen, Wei Hua, Yangang Su, Jiefu Yang, Zhaoguang Liang, Wei Xu, Shuang Zhao, H. Niu, Shu Zhang
Related Content
Claims (6)
An increase in waist circumference is quantitatively associated with increased all-cause mortality risk in adult humans.
Almost 4 out of 10 people with pacemakers have a large waist, and common heart meds like beta-blockers or statins don’t seem to reduce this obesity.
For people with pacemakers, how heavy they are (BMI) doesn’t predict death risk — but how much fat they carry around their waist does.
For pacemaker patients, how big their waist is matters more for survival than how well their heart pumps or how old they are.
Pacemaker patients with a small waist are far less likely to die — only about 1 in 25 die from any cause over 6 years, while nearly 1 in 5 with a large waist do.