• Int J Epidemiol · Jun 2008

    Association of body mass index with all-cause and cause-specific mortality: findings from a prospective cohort study in Mumbai (Bombay), India.

    • Mangesh S Pednekar, Matti Hakama, James R Hebert, and Prakash C Gupta.
    • Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, Mumbai 400614, India. pednekarmangesh@rediffmail.com
    • Int J Epidemiol. 2008 Jun 1; 37 (3): 524-35.

    BackgroundThe association between extremes of relative body weight and mortality has not been well characterized in developing countries. A prospective cohort study was conducted in Mumbai (India) to study the association of relative body weight, as estimated by body mass index [BMI = weight (kg)/height(2) (m(2))], with mortality.MethodsUsing the voters' list as the selection frame, 148 173 men and women aged >/=35 years were recruited during 1991-97 in Mumbai city and were followed-up during 1997-2003.ResultsDuring 774 129 person-years of follow-up, 13 261 deaths were observed. After adjusting for the potential confounders, increased mortality was observed in all under-weight categories [relative risk (RR) = 1.94 for BMI < 16.0 kg/m(2), 1.38 for BMI 16.0 to <17.0 and 1.24 for BMI 17.0 to <18.5 among women; the corresponding values for men were 2.24, 1.45 and 1.27, respectively] when compared with the rate in the normal weight category (BMI 18.5 to <25.0). Extremely thin (BMI < 16.0 kg/m(2)) cohort members were at highest risk for death due to tuberculosis (TB) (RR = 7.20 and 14.94 in women and men, respectively), cancer (RR = 1.87 and 2.44, respectively) and respiratory diseases (RR = 3.46 and 4.35, respectively). Subjects with above normal BMI had lower mortality risk than those with normal BMI values. Over-weight (BMI 25.0 to <30.0) women (RR = 0.89) and men (RR = 0.87) were at a lower risk; however, obese (BMI >/= 30.0) men <60 years of age had an increased mortality risk (RR = 1.22).ConclusionIn Mumbai, under-weight was associated with an increased risk of pre-mature death. Despite the growing concerns regarding the gradual transition toward increasing rates of obesity, under-nutrition remains a major health problem in India. This study suggests the need for public health policies focusing on reducing under-nutrition.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…