General and Abdominal Adiposity and Mortality in Mexico City: A Prospective Study of 150 000 Adults.

Background: Some reports suggest that body mass index (BMI) is not strongly associated with mortality in Hispanic populations. Objective: To assess the causal relevance of adiposity to mortality in Mexican adults, avoiding reverse causality biases. Design: Prospective study. Setting: 2 Mexico City districts. Participants: 159 755 adults aged 35 years and older at recruitment, followed for up to 14 years. Participants with a hemoglobin A1c level of 7% or greater, diabetes, or other chronic diseases were excluded. Measurements: BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, waist circumference, and cause-specific mortality. Cox regression, adjusted for confounders, yielded mortality hazard ratios (HRs) after at least 5 years of follow-up and before age 75 years. Results: Among 115 400 participants aged 35 to <75 years at recruitment, mean BMI was 28.0 kg/m2 (SD, 4.1 kg/m2) in men and 29.6 kg/m2 (SD, 5.1 kg/m2) in women. The association of BMI at recruitment with all-cause mortality was J-shaped, with the minimum at 25 to <27.5 kg/m2. Above 25 kg/m2, each 5-kg/m2 increase in BMI was associated with a 30% increase in all-cause mortality (HR, 1.30 [95% CI, 1.24 to 1.36]). This association was stronger at ages 40 to <60 years (HR, 1.40 [CI, 1.30 to 1.49]) than at ages 60 to <75 years (HR, 1.24 [CI, 1.17 to 1.31]) but was not materially affected by sex, smoking, or other confounders. The associations of mortality with BMI and waist-to-hip ratio were similarly strong, and each was weakened only slightly by adjustment for the other. Waist circumference was strongly related to mortality and remained so even after adjustment for BMI and hip circumference. Limitation: Analyses were limited to mortality. Conclusion: General, and particularly abdominal, adiposity were strongly associated with mortality in this Mexican population. Primary Funding Source: Mexican Health Ministry, Mexican National Council of Science and Technology, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, and Kidney Research UK.

Dynapenic Abdominal Obesity Increases Mortality Risk among English and Brazilian Older Adults: A 10-Year Follow-Up of the ELSA and SABE Studies.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: There is little epidemiological evidence demonstrating that dynapenic abdominal obesity has higher mortality risk than dynapenia and abdominal obesity alone. Our main aim was to investigate whether dynapenia combined with abdominal obesity increases mortality risk among English and Brazilian older adults over ten-year follow-up. DESIGN: Cohort study. SETTING: United Kingdom and Brazil. PARTICIPANTS: Data came from 4,683 individuals from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and 1,490 from the Brazilian Health, Well-being and Aging study (SABE), hence the final sample of this study was 6,173 older adults. MEASUREMENTS: The study population was categorized into the following groups: non-dynapenic/non-abdominal obese, abdominal obese, dynapenic, and dynapenic abdominal obese according to their handgrip strength (< 26 kg for men and < 16 kg for women) and waist circumference (> 102 cm for men and > 88 cm for women). The outcome was all-cause mortality over a ten-year follow-up. Adjusted hazard ratios by sociodemographic, behavioural and clinical characteristics were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: The fully adjusted model showed that dynapenic abdominal obesity has a higher mortality risk among the groups. The hazard ratios (HR) were 1.37 for dynapenic abdominal obesity (95% CI = 1.12 - 1.68), 1.15 for abdominal obesity (95% CI = 0.98 - 1.35), and 1.23 for dynapenia (95% CI = 1.04 - 1.45). CONCLUSIONS: Dynapenia is an important risk factor for mortality but dynapenic abdominal obesity has the highest mortality risk among English and Brazilian older adults.

Effects of body mass index, abdominal obesity, and type 2 diabetes on mortality in community-dwelling elderly in Sao Paulo, Brazil: analysis of prospective data from the SABE study.

BACKGROUND: The majority of studies on the effects of adiposity on mortality in the elderly have been conducted in developed countries with mixed results. We investigated the association between adiposity and mortality in a cohort of community-dwelling elderly in Sao Paulo, Brazil. METHODS: Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and type 2 diabetes were evaluated in 1,882 participants (mean age 71.0 ± 8.3 years old, 61% female). Mortality was confirmed by national vital statistics records during a maximum of 10 years of follow-up. Proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for mortality after adjusting for sociodemographics and comorbidities. In a subsample of 897 participants, the effects of changes in measures of adiposity on mortality were investigated during a median follow-up of 4.6 years. RESULTS: Having type-2 diabetes at baseline was associated with increased mortality (HR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.17-1.77), with a higher HR among men. When compared with normal weight participants (BMI = 20-<25kg/m(2)), overweight and obesity were not associated with mortality (overweight: HR = 0.84 [0.70, 1.02]; obesity: HR = 0.82 [0.64, 1.06]), whereas participants with low-normal weight (BMI = 18.5<20 kg/m(2)) had increased risk of death (HR = 1.51 [1.08-2.10]). Higher waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were not associated with increased mortality. Weight gain was protective against mortality in all BMI categories, except in obese participants, and weight loss increased the risk of death in all BMI categories by 42-63%. CONCLUSIONS: In community-dwelling elderly in Sao Paulo, overweight and obesity were not associated with a higher risk of death, and weight gain seemed to reduce mortality, except in the obese.

Abdominal obesity in Japanese-Brazilians: which measure is best for predicting all-cause and cardiovascular mortality?

This study aimed to verify which anthropometric measure of abdominal obesity was the best predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in Japanese-Brazilians. The study followed 1,581 subjects for 14 years. Socio-demographic, lifestyle, metabolic, and anthropometric data were collected. The dependent variable was vital status (alive or dead) at the end of the study, and the independent variable was presence of abdominal obesity according to different baseline measures. The mortality rate was estimated, and Poisson regression was used to obtain mortality rate ratios with abdominal obesity, adjusted simultaneously for the other variables. The mortality rate was 10.68/thousand person-years. Male gender, age > 60 years, and arterial hypertension were independent risk factors for mortality. The results indicate that prevalence of abdominal obesity was high among Japanese-Brazilians, and that waist/hip ratio was the measure with the greatest capacity to predict mortality (especially cardiovascular mortality) in this group.

Abdominal obesity in Japanese-Brazilians: which measure is best for predicting all-cause and cardiovascular mortality? / Obesidade abdominal em nipo-brasileiros: que medida antropométrica tem maior capacidade de predizer a mortalidade geral e por doenças cardiovasculares?

This study aimed to verify which anthropometric measure of abdominal obesity was the best predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in Japanese-Brazilians. The study followed 1,581 subjects for 14 years. Socio-demographic, lifestyle, metabolic, and anthropometric data were collected. The dependent variable was vital status (alive or dead) at the end of the study, and the independent variable was presence of abdominal obesity according to different baseline measures. The mortality rate was estimated, and Poisson regression was used to obtain mortality rate ratios with abdominal obesity, adjusted simultaneously for the other variables. The mortality rate was 10.68/thousand person-years. Male gender, age > 60 years, and arterial hypertension were independent risk factors for mortality. The results indicate that prevalence of abdominal obesity was high among Japanese-Brazilians, and that waist/hip ratio was the measure with the greatest capacity to predict mortality (especially cardiovascular mortality) in this group.

O objetivo foi verificar qual medida antropométrica de obesidade abdominal melhor prediz mortalidade geral e por doenças cardiovasculares entre nipo-brasileiros. Foram seguidos, por 14 anos, 1.581 sujeitos. Coletaram-se dados sociodemográficos, de estilo de vida, metabólicos e antropométricos. Considerou-se vivo ou óbito ao final do estudo como variável dependente e a presença de obesidade abdominal por diferentes medidas na linha de base como variável independente. Estimou-se o coeficiente de mortalidade e se usou o modelo de Poisson para obtenção das razões entre eles e a obesidade abdominal, ajustados simultaneamente às demais variáveis. O coeficiente de mortalidade foi de 10,68/mil pessoas-ano. O gênero masculino, a idade > 60 anos e ter hipertensão arterial foram fatores de risco independentes para mortalidade. Os resultados indicaram que entre nipo-brasileiros a prevalência de obesidade abdominal foi elevada e que a razão cintura quadril foi a medida que apresentou maior capacidade de predizer a mortalidade, especialmente cardiovascular, entre tais indivíduos.