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Age increased risk for obesity-related mortality among US adults
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Previous studies have found that the relationship between obesity and mortality decreases with age; however, findings published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggest otherwise.
“Obesity wreaks so much havoc on one’s long-term survival capacity that obese adults either don’t live long enough to be included in the survey or they are institutionalized and therefore also excluded. In that sense, the survey data doesn’t capture the population we’re most interested in,” study researcher Ryan K. Masters, PhD, of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said in a press release.
Masters and colleagues collected data from 19 cross-sectional, nationally representative waves of the US National Health Interview Study (1986-2004), linked to the National Death Index through 2006, and applied them to Cox regression models. Using this data, they were able to examine age patterns on the link between obesity and mortality among patients aged 25 to 100 years.
Furthermore, after adjusting for age-related survey selection bias and cohort differences in risk for mortality, the researchers wrote that the link between obesity and risk for mortality increases with age.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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