Middle age weight affects women’s future health

Women who put on weight in their middle age may be risking loss of health in later life, researchers warned yesterday.

A team led by Dr Qi Sun of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, looked at the importance of weight in mid-life to future health. They used figures from the long-term Nurses’ Health Study, which includes 17,065 women who survived until at least the age of 70.

British researcher, Dr Oscar Franco, of Warwick Medical School, who worked on the study, said: "Our data suggest that maintenance of healthy weight throughout adulthood may be vital to optimal overall health at older ages.

"Given that more and more people are surviving to older ages and, at the same time, gaining weight, our results may be particularly important with respect to clinical or public health interventions."

Of the women in the study, 9.9 per cent met the criteria for healthy survival, that is, no history of 11 major chronic diseases and no substantial cognitive, physical, or mental limitations.

On the website of the British Medical Journal, the researchers write: "Increased body mass index at baseline (mean age 50) was significantly associated with linearly reduced odds of healthy survival.

"Compared with lean women (body mass index 18.5-22.9), obese women had 79 per cent lower odds of healthy survival."

They add that the more weight gained from age 18 until mid-life, the less likely was healthy survival after the age of 70. The greatest risk was for women who were overweight at age 18 and gained ten kilograms (4.5 lbs) or more.

In contrast with earlier studies, the team found that the probability of healthy survival started falling even when mid-life weight was within a "normal" range.

"These data provide evidence that adiposity in mid-life is strongly related to a reduced probability of healthy survival among women who live to older ages, and emphasise the importance of maintaining a healthy weight from early adulthood," they conclude.

"Given that more and more Americans are surviving to older ages and, at the same time gaining weight, our results may be particularly important with respect to clinical or public health policies," they add.

Sun, Q. et al. Adiposity and weight change in mid-life in relation to healthy survival after age 70 in women: prospective cohort study. The British Medical Journal, 2009;339:b3796.