Overweight elderly have a longer lifespan: Study

According to experts the aged without any underlying health conditions like diabetes or osteoarthritis which are aggravated by the extra pounds, may be better off being a little overweight.

Lead researcher Prof Leon Flicker, of the University of Western Australia, said, "Concerns have been raised about encouraging apparently overweight older people to lose weight and as such the objective of our study was to examine the major unresolved question of, 'what level of BMI is associated with the lowest mortality risk in older people.

“Our study suggests that those who survive to age 70 in reasonable health have a different set of risks and benefits associated with the amount of body fat to younger people, and these should be reflected in BMI guidelines.”

The details of the study
The researchers conducted a study to assess exactly how much influence weight had on the lifespan of the older population.

They enrolled 4,677 men and 4,563 women aged between 70 and 75 years at the beginning of 1996 and followed them for ten years or until their death whichever came sooner.

The four categories used in the study were underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. These were determined using the body mass index (BMI).

The researchers, besides calculating the BMI of the participants, took factors like demographics, health and lifestyle.

Observations by the researchers
The analysis of the data revealed that mortality risk was lowest in participants who were overweight (BMI of over 25). The results showed that those classified as overweight had a 13 percent lower risk of death from any cause compared with those who were of normal weight.

However, these benefits were absent in the people who were obese (BMI over 30) for they exhibited the same mortality risk as those with normal weight. On the other hand, the participants who were underweight were 76 percent more likely to die.

The only constant in all the groups was the influence of a sedentary lifestyle. Lack of any physical activity raised the risk of mortality in women by two fold where as in men it was elevated by 25 percent, reinforcing the need of an active lifestyle.

The authors declared, "These results lend further credence to claims that the BMI thresholds for overweight and obese are overly restrictive for older people.

"Overweight older people are not at greater mortality risk than those who are normal weight. Being sedentary was associated with a greater risk of mortality in women than in men."

The research appeared in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and the funding came from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.