Prognosis in obesity: Older people should not be misinformed about being overweight -- Visvanathan and Chapman 331 (7514): 452 -- BMJ

Prognosis in obesity: Older people should not be misinformed about being overweight -- Visvanathan and Chapman 331 (7514): 452 -- BMJ: "Prognosis in obesity
Older people should not be misinformed about being overweight

EDITOR—With reference to the editorial by Lean on prognosis in obesity,1 advising apparently overweight older people to lose weight may do more harm than good. Evidence suggests that the risks of being 'overweight' decrease with increasing age. On the basis of mortality, the ideal body mass index (BMI) is higher in older than young adults, with an optimum BMI for people older than 65 in the young adult 'overweight' range of 27-30 kg/m2.2 In a systematic review, Heiat et al concluded that the relation between BMI and mortality in people older than 65 is a flat bottomed, U-shaped curve, with mortality rising only at BMI > 31 kg/m2 and perhaps not at any BMI in people older than 75.2"