If found this at the Big Fat Blog
An interesting new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association attempts to chart four-year mortality rates in adults over 50 years old. The full study impressively includes a one-page survey that doctors could ultimately use in their offices in order to determine one's risk of death.
But as BFBers Cat and Bill pointed out, there's something interesting here: there's just one spot on the form for BMI, and you're penalized only if your BMI is under 25. There's nothing about a high BMI anywhere to be found. Per the study...
The study component of the survey followed just over 19,000 adults over 50 years old for the four year period. Thus, the researchers were able to develop the one-page survey based on who died and due to what. A representative cross-sample was used.
So there you have it: a study that found that having a high BMI was essentially a non-factor in determining causes of death.
An interesting new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association attempts to chart four-year mortality rates in adults over 50 years old. The full study impressively includes a one-page survey that doctors could ultimately use in their offices in order to determine one's risk of death.
But as BFBers Cat and Bill pointed out, there's something interesting here: there's just one spot on the form for BMI, and you're penalized only if your BMI is under 25. There's nothing about a high BMI anywhere to be found. Per the study...
We dichotomized BMI because our multivariate analysis showed that when other variables were considered, more extreme values of BMI did not improve the performance of our model.
Ultimately, then, BMI didn't have much of an effect on predicting mortality. Yet... hm. Wait. Isn't BMI supposed to do things like tell us how many years we're chopping off of our lives? The study component of the survey followed just over 19,000 adults over 50 years old for the four year period. Thus, the researchers were able to develop the one-page survey based on who died and due to what. A representative cross-sample was used.
So there you have it: a study that found that having a high BMI was essentially a non-factor in determining causes of death.
