5% or more unintentional weight loss linked to lower life expectancy for older women

Key takeaways:

• Intentional 3-year weight loss of 5% or more was tied to lower odds of survival to age 90, 95 and 100.
• Unintentional vs. intentional weight loss was more strongly tied to lower odds of surviving to age 90.

Older women who had 5% or more unintentional weight loss had lower life expectancy compared with women with stable weight, according to data from the Women’s Health Initiative published in The Journals of Gerontology.

“These data support close monitoring of the amount and speed of weight loss, particularly when unintentional, as an indicator of underlying poor health and predictor of decreased life span in older women,” Aladdin H. Shadyab, PhD, associate professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California, San Diego, told Healio. “These findings, in the context of the totality of the evidence, suggest that blanket recommendations for weight loss in older women are unlikely to lead to better survival to advanced ages. However, our findings do not affect clinical recommendations for moderate weight loss to achieve health benefits.”

Shadyab and colleagues evaluated longitudinal data from 54,437 women (mean age, 69.8 years; 89.5% white) from the Women’s Health Initiative and examined associations between weight changes and intentionality of weight loss and survival to age 90, 95 and 100 years. Researchers obtained weight at baseline, 3 years and 10 years into the study. Participants were categorized as having weight loss defined as 5% or more decrease from baseline, weight gain defined as 5% or more increase from baseline, or stable weight defined as a less than 5% change from baseline. At year 3, participants reported weight loss intentionality.

Overall, 56.3% of women survived to age 90 years or older. Compared with stable weight, when adjusting for relevant covariates, a 3-year weight loss of 5% or more was associated with lower odds of survival to age 90 years (OR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.64-0.71), 95 years (OR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.60-0.71) and 100 years (OR = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.49-0.78).

Unintentional weight loss was more strongly associated with lower odds of surviving to age 90 years (OR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.74-0.94) compared with intentional weight loss (OR = 0.49; 95% CI, 0.44-0.55).

In addition, 3-year weight gain of 5% or more was not associated with surviving to age 90 years (OR = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.9-1), 95 years (OR = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.86-1.02) or 100 years (OR = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.73-1.22) compared with stable weight.

Results were similar among women with normal weight, overweight and obesity, the researchers wrote.

“Future studies are needed to confirm whether our findings extend to older men, as our study was focused on older women,” Shadyab said.

For more information:

Aladdin H. Shadyab, PhD, can be reached at aladdinshadyab@health.ucsd.edu.