- A new study casts further doubt on the value of body mass index (BMI) alone as a sole predictor of all-cause mortality.
- According to the study authors, most other studies use older data that is insufficiently diverse, and they hope that the new study can correct that.
- While a BMI indicating overweight or obesity can be a risk factor for various chronic, life threatening diseases, it may not be a good indicator of overall mortality risk.
A new study finds that a person’s body mass index, or BMI, is best considered in conjunction with other risk factors when predicting all-cause mortality. BMI as an independent factor may not be as clear an indicator of premature death as previously believed.
Researchers found that across both healthy and overweight BMI categories — from a BMI of 22.5 to 27.4 — there was little difference for adults in the risk of all-cause death.
The study, however, observed that the risk of all-cause death increased by 21% to 108% in adults whose BMI exceeded 30.
For older adults, no significant increase in mortality was seen between BMIs of 22.5 to 34.9, the upper range of which indicated obesity.
The study is published in
Most research regarding BMI and mortality is based on
Mindful of the changes in lifestyles since that period — including the rise in overweight and obesity — and seeking a more diverse study population sample, the new study analyzed fresher, more expansive data.
The analysis involved self-reported BMI data from 554,332 adults in the United States who participated in the 1999-2018 National Health Interview Survey and data from the 2019 US National Death Index.
Individuals averaged 46 years of age, with an equal number of men and women, and 69% were non-Hispanic white, with 12% being non-Hispanic Black.
Of the participants, 35% had a BMI between 25 and 30, which is typically considered overweight, and 27.2% had a BMI of 30 or higher, classified as…
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