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The beneficial effects of weight loss in the obese have been widely accepted. Still, there is a lack of controlled studies displaying large maintained weight losses over long periods (>4 years). We wanted to examine the results of long-standing intentional weight loss on the development of diabetes and hypertension in severely obese individuals over an 8-year period. In the ongoing prospective Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study, 346 patients awaiting gastric surgery were matched with 346 obese control subjects on 18 variables by a computerized matching program. The controls were drawn from a registry consisting of 1508 obese potential controls examined at primary health care centers in Sweden. Of the 692 selected patients (body mass index 41.2+/-4.7 kg/m(2) mean+/-SD), 483 (70%) were followed for 8 years. No significant weight changes occurred in the obese control group over 8 years. Gastric surgery resulted in a maximum weight loss of -31.1+/-13.6 kg after 1 year. After 8 years, the maintained weight loss was still 20.1+/-15.7 kg (16.3+/-12.3%). Whereas this weight reduction had a dramatic effect on the 8-year incidence of diabetes (odds ratio 0.16, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.36), it had no effect on the 8-year incidence of hypertension (odds ratio 1.01, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.67). A differentiated risk factor response was identified: a maintained weight reduction of 16% strongly counteracted the development of diabetes over 8 years but showed no long-term effect on the incidence of hypertension.
Sjöström et al. (Sat,) studied this question.