Obesity Puts People At Risk For Early Death, UB Study Finds

CINCINNATI -- Researchers at the University at Buffalo have shown that

obesity stands alone as a risk factor for death, particularly from heart

disease, and that the risk increases as people put on pounds.

The results challenge the notion that if other health habits are good,

people don't have to worry about their weight.

"It has been postulated that obesity alone was not a risk factor,"

said Joan P. Dorn, Ph.D., UB assistant professor of social and preventive

medicine and the study's lead author. "It was thought the real culprits

were high blood pressure or smoking or inactivity, health problems that

frequently accompany obesity.

"But in this study, we adjusted for all these factors, and body mass

index (a ratio of weight to height and a standard indicator of obesity)

came out by itself as a risk factor for dying from any cause, and

especially as a risk for death from coronary heart disease."

Dorn presented the results here today (May 31, 1996) at the annual

meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine.

The objective of the research was to determine whether, over the

long-term, being obese contributes significantly to a person's risk of

dying in general, and to the risk of death from coronary heart disease,

in particular.

To arrive at a possible answer, the researchers conducted a 29-year

follow-up of 611 men who participated in a 1960 population-based study in

Buffalo, N.Y. Extensive health data, including height, weight and

physical activity, were collected from the participants, who were between

the ages of 20 and 96 in 1960. In the 29 years since the initial

interviews, 295 men had died, 108 from coronary heart disease.

Body mass index (BMI), a number arrived at by dividing weight by

height squared, was used to determine obesity. A body mass index of

between 20-25 is considered acceptable for most people, Dorn noted, but

even within that range, the risk of potential health problems increases

as weight increases. (An example of a person with an acceptable body

mass index would be an individual 5'5" tall weighing 120-126 pounds,

which results in a body mass index of 20 to 21.)

Dorn and colleagues found that even after adjusting for age,

education, cigarette smoking and physical activity, a body mass index of

27 or higher was significantly associated with death from all causes, and

the relationship was stronger yet for death from coronary heart disease.

"With every six- or seven-pound increase in weight, which represents

approximately one-unit increase in the BMI, our results show that there

is an 4 percent increase in risk of dying from any cause," Dorn said.

"For heart disease, one unit of increase in the BMI was associated with a

9 percent increase in risk."

The researchers also investigated the hypothesis that people who are

very thin are also at increased risk of an early death. Dorn said

results showed that for healthy non-smokers, being exceptionally thin was

not a risk factor. The results would be different, she said, for people

whose thinness was caused by debilitating diseases or smoking.

"The bottom line is, even if you are physically active and otherwise

healthy, if you are obese, you are putting your life at risk," Dorn said.

Contributors to the study were Maurizio Trevisan, M.D., professor and

chair of the UB Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, and Warren

Winkelstein, M.D., formerly of UB, now at the School of Public Health,

University of California at Berkeley.