Obesity may have an even greater impact on mortality than anticipated, according to a new method of adjusting for confounding.

When a son’s body mass index was linked to a father’s cardiovascular disease mortality, risk increased 82% with each higher standard deviation of BMI (P=0.008), according to Finn Rasmussen, MD, MPH, PhD, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues.

… Higher offspring BMI was linked to higher lung cancer mortality in mothers and fathers (HR 1.12 and 1.03, respectively, both P<0.001) and higher mortality from respiratory diseases overall for mothers (HR 1.05, P<0.001) and fathers (HR 1.02, P=0.048).