Description

This article is from the Research Concerning Big Folks FAQ, by sharon@ecs.ox.ac.uk (Sharon Curtis) with numerous contributions by others.

A5) Life Expectancy of Fat People

[Bla+] Blair, Kohl, Paffenbarger, Clark, Cooper & Gibbons:
"Physical Fitness and All-Cause Mortality. A Prospective Study of
Healthy Men and Women"
Journal of the American Medical Association, 1989, vol. 262, pp. 2395--2401
10224 men and 3120 women were studied. Fitness was measured
by a treadmill, and average follow-up was 8 years per person.
The study looks as various factors such as cholesterol,
systolic blood pressure, BMI. Results show that low fitness
is a big risk factor for men and women. Tables looking at
BMI, fitness and mortality rates show for both men and women
the highest risk amonst thin unfit people. Those with BMI below
20 had a higher mortality risk, where as BMI 20-25 had a similar
risk to those with BMI > 25. Fitness consistently reduced
mortality risk regardless of age or gender or BMI.

[DBSJ] E.J.Drenick, G.S.Bale, F.Seltzer and D.G.Johnson:
"Excessive Mortality and Causes of Death in Morbidly Obese Men"
Journal of the American Medical Association, 1980, vol. 243, pp. 443--445
See the review in section A8.

[GHPP] S.M.Garn, V.M.Hawthorne, J.J.Pilkington and S.D.Pesick
"Fatness and mortality in the West of Scotland"
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 1983 vol.38, no.2, pp. 313--319
The researchers studied mortality data over 16 years, for men aged
45 to 75, from the West of Scotland. The lean had a higher mortality
rate than the obese. Obese men tended to show more deaths due to
heart problems, and lean men tended to show more deaths due to
cancer. The adverse effects of smoking were also clearly seen here.

[Keys] A.Keys:
"Overweight, obesity, coronary heart disease, and mortality: the
W.O. Atwater Memorial Lecture"
Progress in Clinical Biology Research, 1981, vol. 67, pp. 31--46

[LP] I.Lee and R.S.Paffenberger:
"Change in Body Weight and Longevity"
Journal of the American Medical Association, 1992, vol. 268, pp.2045--2049

[Man+] J.E.Manson, W.C.Willet, M.J.Stampfer, G.A.Colditz, D.J.Hunter,
S.E.Hawlinson, C.H.Hennekens, F.E.Speizer:
"Body Weight and Mortality Among Women"
New England Journal of Medicine, 1995, September 14th
They studied 115,195 women nurses, aged 30-55 years, from 1976 to
1992, all of whom were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer
in 1976. A J-shaped curve of relative risk vs. BMI was obtained,
which was more /-shaped if smokers were factored out.
Figures for fat people consistent with other research, also with
J-shaped curves.
Sample result: Age-adjusted relative risk (AARR) for BMI below 19.0
was 1.0, compared to AARR for BMI 25.9 was 0.7, compared to AARR for
BMI 35.8 was 1.3. When smokers were factored out the AARRs were
1.0 for BMI below 19.0, 1.1 for BMI 25.9 and 1.9 for BMI 35.8.
The actual order of magnitude of the risks were in the range
1 to 4 per 1000 (per person-year).

[Sor+] P.Sorlie, T.Gordon & W.B.Kannel:
"Body build and mortality: The Framingham study"
Journal of the American Medical Association, 1980, vol. 243, pp. 1828--1831

[Wil+] T.Wilcosky, J.Hyde, J.J.B.Anderson, S.Bangdiwala and B.Duncan:
"Obesity and mortality in the lipid research clinics program follow-up study"
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1990, vol.43, pp. 743--752

 

Continue to:

• prev: A4) Causes of Obesity
• Index
• next: A6) Fatness and Fitness

Share and Enjoy

Tags

society, fat, acceptance, big folk, overweigth, reseach, fat, medical