Impact of weight change on specific-cause mortality among middle-aged Japanese individuals
- 15 February 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by BMJ in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
- Vol. 63 (6), 447-454
- https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2008.082065
Abstract
Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between long-term weight change after age 20 and overall mortality and cause-specific mortality in the general Asian population. Methods: From 1990 to 2005, the Japan Public Health Center (JPHC)-based prospective study conducted a follow-up of 42 242 men and 46 177 women aged 40–69 years with no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer. Sex-specific multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for cause-specific mortality were computed in accordance with weight change categories from age 20, as assessed by a self-administered questionnaire, and clustered by the JPHC communities and age groups, using Cox’s proportional hazard model. Results: During the 12.9-year follow-up, there were 6494 deaths, including 2888 from cancer, 1011 from CVD and 2595 from other causes. In all, weight loss ⩾5 kg since age 20 increased hazard ratios for all-cause mortality in men (1.44, 95% CI 1.32 to 1.56) and women (1.33, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.52) compared with maintenance of a stable weight, and elevated risk was also found within each age group. The risk of weight loss was higher for individuals in the younger age group. Weight loss predicted cancer and CVD mortality only for men ⩾50 years of age. The increased risk was observed regardless of whether the individual was ill, a smoker or overweight at baseline or at age 20. There was an inverse association between weight gain and mortality risk. Conclusion: Weight loss strongly predicted all-cause, cancer and CVD mortality, primarily for men. An unfavourable effect of weight gain was small at the population level.Keywords
This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
- Weight change, weight cycling and mortality in the ERFORT Male Cohort StudyEuropean Journal of Epidemiology, 2007
- Body mass index and weight change since 20 years of age and risk of coronary heart disease among Japanese: the Japan Public Health Center-Based StudyInternational Journal of Obesity, 2007
- Less Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Japanese Men in Japan than in White Men in the United States in the Post-World War II Birth CohortAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 2007
- Body-Mass Index and Mortality in Korean Men and WomenThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2006
- Association of Body Mass Index and Weight Change with All-Cause Mortality in the ElderlyAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 2006
- Weight change and changes in the metabolic syndrome as the French population moves towards overweight: The D.E.S.I.R. CohortInternational Journal of Epidemiology, 2005
- Weight change and mortality: the Nord‐Trøndelag Health StudyJournal of Internal Medicine, 2005
- Alcohol Intake and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Middle-Aged Japanese MenStroke, 1995
- A comparison of lesions in small intracerebral arteries among Japanese men in Hawaii and Japan.Stroke, 1994
- Secular trends in atherosclerosis of coronary arteries and basal cerebral arteries in Japan. The Akita pathology study.Arteriosclerosis: An Official Journal of the American Heart Association, Inc., 1990