Print“Many studies show that people tend to gain weight when they go off to college, when they get married, and at other turning points in their lives. This study shows us how important it is to avoid ever gaining the weight in the first place.”
People who are overweight during young adulthood have a greater likelihood of dying earlier than others, a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health finds.
Approximately 20 percent of young adults in the United States are obese, and most of them gain weight between young and middle adulthood. Over the past 30 years, rates of obesity and overweight have tripled among men aged 20-39 and more than tripled among women of that same age group.
Researchers found that excess weight during young adulthood contributes to increases in death rates that may be independent of changes in weight experienced in later life.
“People who are overweight as young adults might think they are only hurting their appearance, and believe they’ll be fine if they lose the weight when they’re older,” says study author June Stevens, chair of the nutrition department in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. “This study suggests that’s not true. That extra weight does have an impact on lifelong health.”
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found the risk of dying was 21 percent higher in those young adults with a higher body mass index and still 28 percent higher when adjusting for other risk factors such as smoking status, physical activity, and alcohol consumption.
Stevens also noted that being overweight at age 25 had a greater impact on black women than white women and a greater impact on men than on women. But the impact of obesity early on in life was negligible in black men when adjusting for weight change throughout adulthood. The researchers said they did not know why that is so.
“Many studies show that people tend to gain weight when they go off to college, when they get married, and at other turning points in their lives,” Stevens says. “This study shows us how important it is to avoid ever gaining the weight in the first place. We have to concentrate on obesity and overweight prevention. Our lives and our health depend on it.”
September 08, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-excess_weight_as_young_adult_predicts_earlier_death_.html
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