Overweight Senior Citizens 70 Plus Less Likely to
Die in 10 Years; Different than Young People
People who survive to 70 in reasonable health have
different set of risks and benefits associated with the amount of body
fat to younger people; study questions current BMI guidelines for older
adults
Feb. 1, 2010 – Those diets that many senior
citizens started at the first of the year may not be as critical as
assumed. A new study of men and women who were between the ages of 70
and 75 as the research began found those classified as “overweight” less
likely to die over a ten year period than those in the “normal” weight
range.
Researchers report in the January 28 issue of the
Journal of The American Geriatrics Society that they looked at
data taken over a decade among more than 9,200 Australian men and women.
They were aged between 70 and 75 at the beginning of the study and were
assessed for their health and lifestyle as part of a study into healthy
aging.
The paper sheds light on the situation in
Australia, which is ranked the third most obese country, behind the
United States and the United Kingdom.
Obesity and overweight are most commonly defined
according to body mass index (BMI). (To learn more about BMI and
determining yours, see table below news report.)
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines four
principal categories: underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese.
The thresholds for these categories were primarily based on evidence
from studies of morbidity and mortality risk in younger and middle-aged
adults, but it remains unclear whether the overweight and obese
cut-points are overly restrictive measures for predicting mortality in
older people.
Study finds Body Mass Index not the best indicator
of mortality
August 8, 2006
The study began in 1996 and recruited 4,677 men and
4,563 women. The participants were followed for ten years or until their
death, whichever was sooner, and factors such as lifestyle,
demographics, and health were measured.
The research uncovered that mortality risk was
lowest for participants with a BMI classified as overweight, with the
risk of death reduced by 13% compared with normal weight participants.
The benefits were only seen in the overweight category not in those
people who are obese.
"Concerns have been raised about encouraging
apparently overweight older people to lose weight and as such the
objective of our study was to examine the major unresolved question of,
'what level of BMI is associated with the lowest mortality risk in older
people?'" said lead researcher Prof. Leon Flicker, of the University of
Western Australia.
"These results add evidence to the claims that the
WHO BMI thresholds for overweight and obese are overly restrictive for
older people. It may be timely to review the BMI classification for
older adults."
In those participants who died before the
conclusion of the study, the researchers concluded that the type of
disease which caused their death, for example heart disease or cancer,
did not affect the level of protection being overweight had.
To remove
any risk of bias in participants with illnesses which caused them to
lose weight, and also increased their risk of dying, the researchers
contrasted subjects who were relatively healthy compared with those who
had major chronic diseases or smoked and found no apparent differences
in the BMI: mortality relationship.
While the same benefit in being overweight was true
for men and women, being sedentary doubled the risk of death for women,
whereas it only increased the risk by a quarter in men.
"Our study suggests that those people who survive
to age 70 in reasonable health have a different set of risks and
benefits associated with the amount of body fat to younger people, and
these should be reflected in BMI guidelines," concluded Flicker.
With the metric system, the
formula for BMI is weight in
kilograms divided by height
in meters squared. Since
height is commonly measured
in centimeters, divide
height in centimeters by 100
to obtain height in meters.
Example: Weight = 68 kg,
Height = 165 cm (1.65 m)
Calculation: 68 ÷ (1.65)2
= 24.98
Links to More on Senior
Citizens and Obesity in SeniorJournal.com Archives
Feb. 1, 2010 – Those diets that many senior
citizens started at the first of the year may not be as critical as
assumed. A new study of men and women who were between the ages of 70
and 75 as the research began found those classified as “overweight” less
likely to die over a ten year period than those in the “normal” weight
range.
More
About BMI