Obesity and poor physical fitness during youth are well-recognized risk factors for future cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, their influence on the risk of severe bacterial infections later in life has been less clear. A recent study explored this association by examining BMI and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in late adolescence and their link to severe bacterial infections in adulthood. The analysis included nearly one million Swedish individuals (mean age, 18.3 years) followed for three decades.
The findings showed that higher BMI and lower CRF in adolescence were strongly associated with an increased risk of bacterial pneumonia, sepsis, and infective endocarditis in adulthood. Obesity was linked to the greatest risk of sepsis (hazard ratio [HR], 3.1). Notably, the risk was already elevated at high-normal BMI levels of 22.5–25 kg/m² compared with BMI 18.5–19.9. In…
