Title of article:

Weight, height and body mass index distributions in geographically and ethnically diverse samples of older persons.

- Ad Hoc committee on the Statistics of anthropometry and Aging

Authors: Launer LJ, Harris T.
Journal: Age Ageing. 1996 Jul;25(4):300-6.

Abstract

We compared anthropometric data (height, weight and body mass index) from 19 geographically and ethnically varied samples of community-dwelling elderly people. Participants were stratified into three age groups, 60-69, 70-79 and 80 years or older. We present age-group-specific means and standard deviations for height, weight and body mass index (BMI, weight/height2) and the prevalence of underweight (BMI < 20) and overweight (BMI > or = 30). Across studies there are large differences in the prevalence of overweight and underweight, but in all studies mean height and BMI decreased with age. In general, mean BMI among 70-79-year-old women is greater than that for men of a similar age, and the Mediterranean samples are heavier for height than samples from Western Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States. The comparisons suggest that the sensitivity and specificity of a fixed cut-off for underweight and overweight are likely to differ by sex, age, and geographic location in samples of older persons.

Comments and Key points

An incredibly useful article. They showed that body measures decline (get smaller) in older adults from age 60, to 70, to age 80. Height declines, weight declines, and body mass index declines. This happens worldwide.

But most importantly, they grouped the "self-reported health" of the subjects, and compared "excellent health" versus "fairly good health" versus "poor health". They found the averaged BMI of these groups was 24.4, 24.7 and 24.7 respectively, in other words, no difference in BMI between Excellent health to Poor health, in elderly adults.

It is known that the majority of older adults in the USA have excess body fat percentages, which makes their BMI values seem overweight. But what is the point of implying that these BMI values are abnormal and unhealthy when evidence suggests it is not associated with poor health. In fact, in older adults (like those in this study), having a lower body mass index is associated with increased mortality rates.

As an example, here is data from the article, of USA white men and women age 60 through 89. Most values are higher than the standard definition of overweight at 25.0 kg/m².

Age	Men's BMI	Women's BMI
60 to 69	26.4	26.5
70 to 79	25.6	25.7
80 to 89	24.6	24.4

 

Review & comments by Steven B. Halls, MD, Last edited 23-June, 2008, Copyright
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