Middle Age Severely Obese People More Likely to Die Early

The research shows people with the highest levels of obesity are running a high risk of a range of serious illnesses and premature death, with 12 times the risk of type 2 diabetes, 22 times the risk of sleep apnoea and nearly four times the risk of heart failure compared to those who are of normal weight.

Fast food is a cause of obesity. Photo: Christopher Flowers/Unsplash

The study of 2.8 million people from anonymized patient records presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow gives an indication of the extent to which obesity can take a toll on people’s health in the real world – as opposed to clinical trials. Even the least obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 to 35, had twice the risk of high blood pressure, nearly twice the risk of heart failure and nearly six times the risk of sleep apnoea of those with a healthy weight.

Those who were most severely obese had a 50% higher risk of dying prematurely from any cause than those of normal weight. Among the overweight and least obese, there was no increased risk of early death, but experts said this was probably due to the obesity paradox – that people suffering from cardiovascular disease or other obesity-related causes lose weight.

Researchers used NHS data to look at what happened over 10 years to the health of people in five weight categories, from normal weight (with a BMI or body mass index of 18.5 to 25) through to the most severely obese (with a BMI of 40 to 45). They looked for 12 health outcomes, including death from any cause over the decade.

Those whose health declined most tended to be men and women who already had an underlying condition at the start of the study. The most common of those conditions were high blood pressure (22.8%), asthma (13.1%), osteoarthritis (10.2%), dyslipidaemia – abnormal levels of cholesterol and other fats in the blood – (9.7%) and type 2 diabetes (5.2%). All were more common in the higher obesity groups.

There were increased disease risks at all levels of obesity. People in the group with the lowest severity of obesity, with a BMI of 30 to 35, were more than five times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes and sleep apnoea as those of a normal weight.

Given the health risk of obesity, it is time to move away from considering obesity as a lifestyle choice. Instead we all have to take responsibility of our future health. We cannot assume that we get away with it. As this study shows, it may just be a matter of time. (Tasnim News Agency)

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