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Body Mass Index and Mortality in Chinese Older Adults —New Evidence from a Large Prospective Cohort in China

  • Original Research
  • Published:
The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Objectives

To comprehensively evaluate the association between BMI and death risk in people aged 65 years and over in Shenzhen, China, and suggest the optimal range of body mass index (BMI) for the older adults.

Design

A prospective cohort study.

Setting

A population-based study of elderly adults in Shenzhen, China.

Participants

359044 Shenzhen Healthy Ageing Research participants aged 65 and over with 4682 deaths during a mean of 1.5 years of follow-up were included in this analysis.

Measures

Hazard ratio of all-cause and cause specific mortality risks associated with BMI categories. The association between BMI and all-cause and cause specific mortality were independently estimated by Cox regression model.

Results

Regardless of gender, BMI of 24–29.9 kg/m2 was a protective factor for death in all ages, while BMI above 30 kg/m2 was still a protective factor for older adults under 70 years old. Regardless of age, BMI at 24–25.9 kg/m2 was associated with lower mortality in men, while BMI at 26–27.9 kg/m2 was associated with lower mortality in women. For the older adults without chronic diseases, BMI at 24–25.9 kg/m2 was also significantly associated with lower mortality. In the analysis of BMI and cause of death, we also found that BMI of 24–25.9 kg/m2 was significantly associated with the lower mortality from cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and digestive system disease in China.

Conclusion

BMI in the range of 24–25.9 kg/m2 may be protective for mortality in Chinese older adults. Additional more large-scale, multicenter and long-term follow-up studies are needed to confirm these findings in different populations.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the volunteers for participating in the present study, and to all the investigators for their support and hard work during this survey.

Funding

Funding: This study was supported by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. JCYJ20180703145202065), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. KCXFZ20201221173600001), Shenzhen Medical Key Discipline Construction Fund, Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (Grant No. SZSM201811093) and Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. A2022082).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Wenqing Ni and Wei Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Elderly Health Management, Shenzhen Center for Chronic Disease Control, No. 2021 Buxin Road, Luohu District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, 518020

    W. Ni, Z. Zhao, X. Yuan, Y. Sun, H. Zhang &  Jian Xu

  2. National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, No. 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, 100050, China

    L. Wang, M. Zhou &  Peng Yin

Authors
  1. W. Ni
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  7. L. Wang
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Contributions

Author contributions: PY and JX conceived the study. WN and WL analyzed the data and wrote the first draft. WN, WL, ZZ, XY, YS, HZ, LW and MZ interpreted the data and critically revised the manuscript for intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Peng Yin and Jian Xu supervised the study, had full access to all data and had the final responsibility in deciding to submit for publication.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Peng Yin or Jian Xu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest: All the authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical Standards: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shenzhen Center for Chronic Disease Control.

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Ni, W., Liu, W., Zhao, Z. et al. Body Mass Index and Mortality in Chinese Older Adults —New Evidence from a Large Prospective Cohort in China. J Nutr Health Aging 26, 628–636 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-022-1813-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-022-1813-9

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