bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Obesity can reduce life expectancy by up to eight years and deprive people of as much as 19 years of good health, according to a study published yesterday.
The research - a mathematical model based on US health data - should be a useful tool for doctors advising patients who are worryingly overweight, its authors said.
The biggest area of concern is for people who become obese while they are young.
"The pattern is clear," said Steven Grover, a professor of epidemiology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
"The more an individual weighs and the younger their age, the greater the effect on their health.
He added: "They have many years ahead of them, during which the increased health risks associated with obesity can negatively impact their lives."
Grover's team used data from a big US project, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which monitored thousands of people over years, to analyse the risk of early death and ill health among adults of different body weight.
They compared overweight and obese people against people of normal weight in terms of life expectancy. They also calculated the number of years of good health that each individual could - statistically - expect. This was defined as being free of cardiovascular disease or diabetes - two diseases that are closely linked with excessive weight.
The estimates applied to people aged between 20 and 79.
The outcome was dramatic, according to the paper, which appears in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.
Individuals who were in the overweight category - who had a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9 - were estimated to lose up to three years of expected life.
Between 0.8 and 5.9 years of life were lost for obese people, with a BMI of 30 to 34.9. The extremely obese, with a BMI of 35 or more, lost between 0.9 and 8.4 years of life expectancy.
The greatest loss in expected lifespan was found among those aged 20-39.
On the other hand, the loss was smaller and sometimes negligible among those who were only overweight.
"Healthy life-years" lost to diabetes and cardiovascular problems ranged from 0.5 years to 19.1. The biggest loss was among women who were extremely obese in the 20-39 age bracket. The least loss was among men who were overweight and aged between 60 and 79.
The data came from a subset of 4,000 people in the 2003-2010 US survey, all of them white, for whom more details about their health and blood sugar were known.


Obesity can reduce your life expectancy by up to 8 years, study finds

Seventeen year-old Marissa Hamilton watches a friend eat during a meal at Wellspring Academy in Reedley, California. Photo: AFP

News

World