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Midlife midriff cuts healthy years
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Photo: Points Dude (flickr)
Senior womens' health is largely determined by their midlife weight, reports a study in the British Medical Journal.
More than 17,000 women took part in the Nurses Health Study that looked at the impact of midlife weight as it relates to health in the golden years. Women were considered to be healthy if they had no history of 11 different chronic diseases or significant limitations in cognitive, physical, or mental function by the time they reached the age of 70.
Only 9.9% of the women met the criteria for healthy survival, and women who had a higher body mass index (a measure of lean body mass) at midlife had a significantly lower chance of healthy aging. Women who were obese during their midlife years had a 79% decreased chance of healthy survival compared with lean women.
Women who were overweight during their teens and who continued to stay overweight had the lowest odds of healthy survival.
"These data provide evidence that (being overweight) in midlife is strongly related to a decreased probability of healthy survival among women who live to older ages, and emphasize the importance of maintaining a healthy weight from early adulthood," commented the study's authors.
(BMJ 2009;339:b63796)
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