Maintaining Healthy Body Weight Helps Elderly Women To Live Longer: Study

According to a multi-institutional study sponsored by the University of California San Diego, reaching the ages of 90, 95, or 100, known as extraordinary longevity, was more likely for women who maintained their body weight after the age of 60. Older women who maintained a constant weight were 1.2 to 2 times more likely to live longer than those who lost 5 per cent or more of their weight. The study was published in the Journal of Gerontology.

Researchers looked into the links between weight changes later in life and remarkable longevity in 54,437 women who took part in the Women's Health Initiative, a prospective study that looked into the causes of chronic diseases in postmenopausal women. During the follow-up period, 30,647 people, or 56% of the participants, lived to be 90 or older.

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Women who lost at least 5 per cent of their body weight were less likely to live longer than those who maintained their weight. Women who accidentally lost weight, for example, were 51% less likely to live to the age of 90. Gaining 5 per cent or more weight over a steady weight, on the other hand, was not related to extraordinary longevity. “It is very common for older women in the United States to experience overweight or obesity with a body mass index range of 25 to 35. Our findings support stable weight as a goal for longevity in older women,” said first author Aladdin H. Shadyab, PhD, M.P.H., associate professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego. “If ageing women find themselves losing weight when they are not trying to lose weight, this could be a warning sign of ill health and a predictor of decreased longevity.”