Excess Weight in Young Adulthood Predicts Shorter Lifespan
Release Date: August 16, 2011 |
KEY POINTS
- Being heavy in young adulthood can lead to earlier death, even if a person loses weight later.
- Obesity in young adulthood has less effect on lifespan for African-American men than for others who were followed in a study.
- As weight rises for young adults as a group, U.S. lifespans might shorten.
Those 25-year-olds who are overweight now but think they will be fine as long as they lose weight eventually might need to reconsider. A study appearing online in the Journal of Adolescent Health finds that people who are overweight during young adulthood are likely to die earlier than others.
“Young adults are so much heavier now than they were 20 years ago,” said June Stevens, Ph.D., lead study author. “Our results really make me concerned that getting heavy early in life could translate into a shorter lifespan for many Americans.”
The risk of dying was 21 percent higher in those with a higher body mass index (BMI). Moreover, after adjusting for other risk factors such as smoking status, physical activity and alcohol consumption, it was 28 percent higher.
“If you made everybody’s weight gain over those intervening years the same, there was still an effect of being heavier at age 25 on increased mortality,” said Stevens, nutrition and epidemiology professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “BMI in young adulthood matters. You can’t just make up for it by losing weight later. You need to be concerned about your BMI throughout your young adulthood.”
Carrying a higher BMI or being overweight at 25 had a greater impact on African-American women than white women and on men compared to women. Yet, the influence of obesity early on in life was negligible in black men when adjusting for weight change throughout adulthood.
“Why would changes in weight from middle adulthood to young adulthood cancel out the effect of weight at age 25 in African-American men?” Stevens said. “I don’t really have an answer for that.”
Catherine Loria, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, said this study underscores the importance of adopting healthy habits earlier in life and sustaining it.
“The bottom line here is for all of these ethnic groups, weight in young adulthood was associated with mortality,” Loria said.
TERMS OF USE: This story is protected by copyright. When reproducing any material, including interview excerpts, attribution to the Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health, is required.
# # #
For More Information:
Reach the Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health, at (202) 387-2829 or hbns-editor@cfah.org.
Journal of Adolescent Health: Contact Tor Berg at (415) 502-1373 or tor.berg@ucsf.edu or visit www.jahonline.org.
Stevens, J., et al. Body Mass Index at Age 25 and All-Cause Mortality in Whites and African Americans. J Adol Health online, 2011.
Tags for this article:
Obesity Children and Young People's Health
Lifestyle and Prevention
Comments on this article
Please note: CFAH reserves the right to moderate all comments posted to the Health Behavior News Service. Any inappropriate postings will be removed.
No comments have been entered yet.
Add Your Comment
HEALTH BEHAVIOR NEWS
 |
Obese Teens Have Fewer Friends, Especially Whites |
 |
Being Overweight Years Before Pregnancy Linked to Bigger Babies |
 |
Teens Who Check the Scale Frequently May Have An Unhealthy Preoccupation With Weight |
 |
Most People Fudge Numbers on Weight and Height Surveys |
 |
Teen Weight Began to Rise in 1990s, New Study Finds |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
From the Department of "Gosh! Why Didn't I Think of That?" Jessie Gruman | August 18, 2010 |
 |
Latest Health Behavior News Health Behavior News Service | March 7, 2013 |
 |
A New Year and a New Big Picture Look at Weight Loss? Inside Health Care | January 9, 2012 |