Objective: To investigate the relationship between fine gradations in body mass index (BMI) and risk of hospitalisation for different types of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Design, Subjects and Methods: The 45 and Up Study is a large-scale Australian cohort study initiated in 2006. Self-reported data from 158 546 individuals with no history of CVD were linked prospectively to hospitalisation and mortality data. Hazard ratios (HRs) of incident hospitalisation for specific CVD diagnoses in relation to baseline BMI categories were estimated using Cox regression, adjusting for age, sex, region of residence, income, education, smoking, alcohol intake and health insurance status. Results: There were 9594 incident CVD admissions over 583 100 person-years among people with BMI≥20 kgm -2 , including 3096 for ischaemic heart disease (IHD), 1373 for stroke, 411 for peripheral vascular disease (PVD) and 320 for heart failure. The adjusted HR of hospitalisation for all CVD diagnoses combined increased significantly with increasing BMI ( P (trend)