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Patterns and Associations of Body Weight Among Older Adults in Two Asian Societies

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Abstract

Body weight has important health implications across the lifespan. Most recent attention has focused on the obesity epidemic that is occurring in many parts of the world. However, underweight is also a concern, particularly in less developed countries. For most health outcomes there is a curvilinear association with body weight, with underweight and overweight (compared to normal weight) being associated with a higher prevalence of chronic debilitating and life-threatening conditions and ultimately mortality. This paper uses data from two nationally-representative surveys of older adults (aged 60 and older) in the Philippines (1996) and Taiwan (1999) to assess the prevalence of underweight and overweight and examine associations between body weight and demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics in these populations. Older Filipinos have a modest prevalence of underweight (29.9%) and low prevalence of overweight (12.2%), whereas the reverse is observed in Taiwan (6.4 and 29.3%, respectively). Results show generally expected associations between body weight and demographic characteristics, health conditions and behaviors. We find little evidence of socioeconomic differences in body weight, except in the Philippines where higher SES is associated with a lower risk of being underweight. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of healthy weight maintenance among critical subgroups to potentially reduce the prevalence of disease and improve quality of life.

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Acknowledgements

Partial support for this project was provided by a post-doctoral research fellowship (Grant: 5 T32 AG00221) and by a research project (R01 AG020072-03) funded from the National Institute on Aging. We thank Yi-Li Chuang and staff in the Center for Population and Health at the Bureau of Health Promotion in Taiwan for conducting the Taiwan panel study and making the data available for analysis and Josefina Natividad and the Population Institute at the University of the Philippines for conducting the Philippine study and making the data available. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2003 Gerontological Society of America Annual Meetings in San Diego, CA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Kristi Rahrig Jenkins & Mary Beth Ofstedal

  2. Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Nan E. Johnson

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  1. Kristi Rahrig Jenkins
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  2. Nan E. Johnson
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Correspondence to Kristi Rahrig Jenkins.

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Jenkins, K.R., Johnson, N.E. & Ofstedal, M.B. Patterns and Associations of Body Weight Among Older Adults in Two Asian Societies. J Cross Cult Gerontol 22, 83–99 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-006-9031-1

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