Obesity And Weight Change In Middle-Aged Women Decrease Probability Of A Long And Healthy Life

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 30 Sep 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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New research published on bmj.com today reports that the more weight women gain from the age of 18 until middle age, the less likely they are to enjoy a long and healthy life.

Findings indicated that compared with lean women, being obese in middle age reduces those odds by 79 percent. The authors note that this emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy weight from early adulthood.

In spite of the accepted evidence that overweight and obesity can significantly increase the risk of early death, it is unclear how adiposity affects overall health and wellbeing among those who live on to older ages.

In order to find out more, researchers in the United States investigated the hypothesis that being overweight in mid life is linked with a reduced probability of maintaining best possible health among those who live on to older ages.

They reviewed the Nurses Health Study which is a comprehensive twice-a-year monitoring of more than 17,000 middle-aged women in the United States.

Participants who survived to age 70 years or older, were free of major chronic diseases, and had good cognitive, physical and mental health were referred to as "healthy survival". Participants who survived to age 70 years or older but did not meet these criteria were referred to as "usual survival".

After considering a number of factors, increased body mass index at the start of the study was significantly linked with reduced odds of healthy survival. Each single unit increase of body mass index was associated with a 12 percent decrease in the odds of healthy survival.

Also, in comparison to women of stable weight, weight gain since the age of 18 was notably associated with reduced probability of healthy survival. For every one kilogram increase of weight gain since age 18 years, the odds of healthy survival decreased by 5 percent.

The worst odds of healthy survival were found among women who were overweight at 18 and gained 10kg or more by middle age.

But even among women who were lean at 18, relative to those who kept a stable weight, women who gained more than 10kg by middle age were 59 percent less likely to reach healthy survival.

This information provides proof that adiposity in mid life is strongly related to a reduced probability of healthy survival among women who live to older ages. The authors explain this stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy weight from early adulthood.

They write in conclusion: "Given that more and more Americans are surviving to older ages and, at the same time, gaining weight, our results may be particularly important with respect to clinical or public health policies and deserve further investigation and confirmation in additional studies."

"Adiposity and weight change in mid-life in relation to healthy survival after age 70 in women: prospective cohort study"
Qi Sun, research associate, Mary K Townsend, research fellow, Olivia I Okereke, associate epidemiologist and associate psychiatrist, OscarHFranco, assistant clinical professor in public health, Frank B Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology, Francine Grodstein, associate professor of epidemiology
BMJ 2009;339:b3796
doi:10.1136/bmj.b3796
bmj.com

Written by Stephanie Brunner (B.A.)

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