Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 21;22(1):236.
doi: 10.1186/s12877-022-02945-4.

Body mass index and 12-year mortality among older Mexican Americans aged 75 years and older

Reshma Jadhav  1 , Kyriakos S Markides  2   3 , Soham Al Snih  4   5   6
Affiliations

Body mass index and 12-year mortality among older Mexican Americans aged 75 years and older

Reshma Jadhav et al. BMC Geriatr. .

Abstract

Background: The role of obesity in mortality in the very old and old-oldest Hispanic population has not been studied. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of body mass index (BMI) on 12-year mortality among older Mexican Americans aged 75 years and older.

Methods: Twelve year prospective cohort study consisting of a population-based sample of 1415 non-institutionalized Mexican American men and women aged 75 and older from 5 southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Data was from Wave 5 of the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (2004/2005-2016). Socio-demographics, body mass index (BMI), self-reported medical conditions, disability, depressive symptoms, falls, Mini-Mental-State-Examination (MMSE), and Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) were assessed at baseline during 2004-2005. BMI (Kg/m2) was classified as underweight (< 18.5), normal weight (18.5 to < 25), overweight (25 to < 30), obesity category I (30 to < 35), and obesity category II/morbid obesity (≥ 35). For assessment of mortality, deaths were ascertained through the National Death Index and report from relatives. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of 12-year mortality as a function of BMI categories at baseline.

Results: The mean BMI was 27.5 ± 1.7 with participants classified as 1.8% underweight, 30.8% normal weight, 39.2% overweight, 20.7% obesity category I, and 7.6% obesity category II/morbid obesity. Mexican Americans aged ≥75 years with overweight or obesity category I had a reduced HR of death (0.82, 95% CI = 0.70-0.96 and 0.75, 95% CI = 0.62-0.91, respectively) over 12-years of follow-up. The HR of death for underweight and obesity category II/morbid obesity participants was 1.59 (95% CI = 1.03-2.45) and 1.12 (95% CI = 0.85-1.46), respectively. Female participants and those with high scores in the MMSE and SPPB had decreased risk of death.

Conclusions: This study showed the protective effect of overweight and obesity on mortality in Mexican Americans above 75 years of age, which might have implications when treating older adults with overweight and obesity.

Keywords: Hispanic; Mexican American; Mortality; Obesity; Oldest old.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Survival curve as a function of BMI categories over 12-years of follow-up (N = 1415)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Fryar CD, Flegal KM. Prevalence of obesity among adults and youth: United States, 2011-2014. NCHS Data Brief. 2015;(219):1–8. - PubMed
    1. Van Hook J, Baker E, Altman CE, Frisco ML. Canaries in a coalmine: immigration and overweight among Mexican-origin children in the US and Mexico. Soc Sci Med. 2012;74(2):125–134. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.10.007. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stevens J, Cai J, Pamuk ER, Williamson DF, Thun MJ, Wood JL. The effect of age on the association between body-mass index and mortality. N Engl J Med. 1998;338(1):1–7. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199801013380101. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Oreopoulos A, Kalantar-Zadeh K, Sharma AM, Fonarow GC. The obesity paradox in the elderly: potential mechanisms and clinical implications. Clin Geriatr Med. 2009;25(4):643–659. doi: 10.1016/j.cger.2009.07.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wu CY, Chou YC, Huang N, Chou YJ, Hu HY, Li CP. Association of body mass index with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in the elderly. PLoS One. 2014;9(7):e102589. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102589. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources