Abstract
Objective: To describe longitudinal changes in height and body weight between the ages of 70 and 95 y.
Design: Longitudinal cohort study with representative sample of 70-y-olds.
Setting: Department of Geriatric Medicine, Göteborg University, Sweden.
Subjects: 449 males and 524 females, aged 70 y, living in Göteborg were examined in 1971–72 and this study population participated on 11 occasions during a 25-year follow-up.
Results: Mean height decreased 4 and 4.9 cm in males and females respectively and the trend was significant between the ages of 70 and 95 y in both sexes. Between 70 and 75 y of age, a significant difference was found between quintiles of body height where in the highest quintile height was lowered by 0.4 and 0.3 cm/y, in males and females respectively, and in the lowest quintile by 0.1 cm/y in both sexes. Mean body weight decreased 3.2 and 5.1 kg in males and females respectively, from age 70 to 95 y. The trend was significant over 22 and 20 y for males and females, respectively. Between the ages of 70 and 80 y, individuals in highest quintile of body weight decreased at a rate of 0.8 and 0.6 kg/y, three times higher than those in lowest quintile. Due to the decrease in both height and weight over time, body mass index (BMI) was less affected.
Conclusion: Height, body weight and BMI decreased significantly in both sexes after age 70 y, and there was a gender difference in the trend. The results can be used as reference data for Swedish elderly and might be of importance to the understanding of anthropometry with the ageing process.
Sponsorship: See acknowledgements.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Contributors: Dr D K Dey did the data analysis and was primarilty responsible for writing the manuscript; E Rothenberg contributed in the study concept and critical reading of the paper; V Sundh did the statistical analysis; I Bosaeus contributed ideas for analysis and editing the paper and B Steen as over all study coordinator, provided guidance in the study design, supervised analysis and contributed in editing the manuscript.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dey, D., Rothenberg, E., Sundh, V. et al. Height and body weight in the elderly. I. A 25-year longitudinal study of a population aged 70 to 95 years. Eur J Clin Nutr 53, 905–914 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600852
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600852
- Springer Nature Limited
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Association between obesity and education level among the elderly in Taipei, Taiwan between 2013 and 2015: a cross-sectional study
Scientific Reports (2020)
-
Residential relocation and obesity after a natural disaster: A natural experiment from the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Scientific Reports (2019)
-
Nutritional Status and Cognitive Impairment among the Very Old in a Community Sample from Southern Brazil
The Journal of nutrition, health and aging (2019)
-
Repository Describing an Aging Population to Inform Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Models Considering Anatomical, Physiological, and Biological Age-Dependent Changes
Clinical Pharmacokinetics (2019)
-
Body mass index, waist-hip ratio and risk of chronic medical condition in the elderly population: results from the Well-being of the Singapore Elderly (WiSE) Study
BMC Geriatrics (2016)