BMI associated with health status

A person's body mass index has a lot to do with his health status, according to a new study published in the Jan 20 2010 issue of European Journal of Epidemiology suggests.

Kvamme J.M. and colleagues from the University of Tromsø analyzed data from 4,259 men and women aged 65 years or older from a general population. The subjects were classified based on their body mass index into six groups (less than 20, 20.0 to 22.4, 22.5 to 25.9, 25-27.4, 27.5 to 29.9 and greater than 30.0 kg/m2).

The researchers found that those who had a BMI of less than 20 kg/m2 were more likely to suffer mental distress, hip fracture, smoking and low hardgrip strength.

A U-shaped relation to BMI was observed for asthma, chronic bronchitis, poor current health and low physical activity, meaning both people with obesity or underweight were at higher risk.

Those in the high BMI groups were more likely to have low education level, a difficult economical situation, diabetes mellitus and ischemic heart disease.

The researchers concluded that both low BMI and high BMI are linked to a wide spectrum of prevalent diseases or health conditions in elderly men and women.

By David Liu