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Comparing years of healthy life, measured in 16 ways, for normal weight and overweight older adults.
Tuesday,2012-11-06 12:26 America/Los_Angeles — eenright
| Title | Comparing years of healthy life, measured in 16 ways, for normal weight and overweight older adults. |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2012 |
| Authors | Diehr, P, Thielke, S, O'Meara, E, Fitzpatrick, AL, Newman, A |
| Journal | J Obes |
| Volume | 2012 |
| Pagination | 894894 |
| Date Published | 2012 |
| ISSN | 2090-0716 |
| Abstract | <p>Introduction. The traditional definitions of overweight and obesity are not age specific, even though the relationship of weight to mortality is different for older adults. Effects of adiposity on aspects of health beside mortality have not been well investigated. Methods. We calculated the number of years of healthy life (YHL) in the 10 years after baseline, for 5,747 older adults. YHL was defined in 16 different ways. We compared Normal and Overweight persons, classified either by body mass index (BMI) or by waist circumference (WC). Findings. YHL for Normal and Overweight persons differed significantly in 25% of the comparisons, of which half favored the Overweight. Measures of physical health favored Normal weight, while measures of mental health and quality of life favored Overweight. Overweight was less favorable when defined by WC than by BMI. Obese persons usually had worse outcomes. Discussion. Overweight older adults averaged as many years of life and years of healthy life as those of Normal weight. There may be no outcome based reason to distinguish Normal from Overweight for older adults. Conclusion. The "Overweight paradox" appears to hold for nonmortality outcomes. New adiposity standards are needed for older adults, possibly different by race and sex.</p> |
| DOI | 10.1155/2012/894894 |
| Alternate Journal | J Obes |
| PubMed ID | 22778920 |
| PubMed Central ID | PMC3388309 |
| Grant List | R01 AG015928 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States U01 HL080295 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States N01 HC015103 / HC / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States R56 AG020098 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States N01HC55222 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States N01HC85086 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States K23 MH093591 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States R01 HL080295 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States R01 AG020098 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States N01HC75150 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States N01HC85079 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States R01 AG023629 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States R01 AG027058 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States N01 HC045133 / HC / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States N01 HC035129 / HC / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States R56 AG023629 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States |