A couple of extra pounds won't hurt the elderly

The results of a nationwide study conducted by scientists at Ohio State University, working under the guidance of associate Professor Hui Zheng, showed that people over the age of 50 who have a little extra pounds and maintain their weight at a relatively stable level are most likely to live another 16 years or more. On the other hand, people of the same age group with severe obesity who continue to gain weight are more likely to die during the specified observation period.

In general, approximately 7.2% of deaths over the age of 51 are due to an increase in body weight in obese people. This applies at least to the generation whose mortality was analyzed during the study.

The authors came to these conclusions based on the results of an analysis of data collected as part of a representative national survey devoted to the study of the health and retirement status of U.S. residents born between 1931 and 1941. A total of 9,538 people took part in the survey, whose age at the beginning of the study in 1992 was 51-61 years. Every two years until 2008, the participants were re-interviewed, while the researchers received information about the change in their body mass index (BMI) and the date of death, if it occurred before December 2009.

Zheng and his colleagues divided the participants into 6 groups depending on the body mass index at the start of the study and the nature of its change over the subsequent 16-year period. As a result of the analysis carried out with adjustments for parameters such as smoking, chronic diseases, self-assessment of health status, as well as a number of demographic and socio-economic factors, the analyzed groups were arranged in the following order:

• the survival rate of people with moderate excess weight (BMI 25-29.9), whose weight remained stable, was the highest;
• people who went from overweight to obesity of the first degree (BMI 30-34.9) were only slightly behind the first group;
• in third place were people with normal body weight (BMI 18.5-24.9), whose weight increased slightly, but remained in the same range;
• the next were people with grade I obesity (BMI 30-34.9), whose weight progressively increased;
• in the penultimate place were people who lost weight with initially normal weight. Despite the fact that the researchers were unable to find a relationship between weight loss and diseases, they believe that it was diseases that could cause the death of people from this group;
• participants with severe forms of obesity (BMI 35 and above), who continued to gain weight progressively, had the lowest survival rate.

According to the authors, there were so few overweight and obese participants whose weight decreased during the follow-up period that it did not seem appropriate to include them in the analysis.

They also suggested that perhaps a small amount of extra pounds has a positive effect on the life expectancy of aging people due to the high probability of developing diseases in this age group, especially cancer, accompanied by life-threatening weight loss. In such situations, small reserves can provide protection from a lack of nutrients and energy, metabolic stress, muscle exhaustion and a decrease in bone density.

Article by H. Zheng et al. Obesity and Mortality Risk: New Findings From Body Mass Index Trajectories published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Ohio State University:
Older Adults Live Longer With A Few Extra Pounds – If They Don’t Add More.

23.09.2013