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- Title
Body mass index is inversely related to mortality in elderly subjects.
- Authors
Weiss, Avraham; Beloosesky, Yichayaou; Boaz, Mona; Yalov, Alexandra; Kornowski, Ran; Grossman, Ehud
- Abstract
<bold>Purpose: </bold>To study the long-term effect of being overweight on mortality in very elderly subjects.<bold>Methods: </bold>The medical records of 470 inpatients (226 males) with a mean age of 81.5 +/- 7 years and hospitalized in an acute geriatric ward between 1999 and 2000 were reviewed for this study. Body mass index (BMI) at admission day was subdivided into quartiles: <22, 22-25, 25.01-28, and > or =28 kg/m(2). Patients were followed-up until August 31, 2004. Mortality data were taken from death certificates.<bold>Results: </bold>During a mean follow-up of 3.46 +/- 1.87 years (median 4.2 years [range 1.6 to 5.34 years]), 248 patients died. Those who died had lower baseline BMI than those who survived (24.1 +/- 4.2 vs 26.3 +/- 4.6 kg/m(2); p < .0001). The age-adjusted mortality rate decreased from 24 to 9.6 per 100 patient-years from the highest to lowest BMI quartile (p < .001). BMI was associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality even after controlling for sex. A multivariate Cox proportional hazards model identified that even after controlling for male gender, age, renal failure, and diabetes mellitus, which increased the risk of all-cause mortality, elevated BMI decreased the all-cause mortality risk.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>In very elderly subjects, elevated BMI was associated with reduced mortality risk.
- Subjects
BODY mass index; RISK assessment; MORTALITY; MEDICAL informatics; EVALUATION of medical care; INTERNAL medicine
- Publication
JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2008, Vol 23, Issue 1, p19
- ISSN
0884-8734
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s11606-007-0429-4