Association between body mass index and mortality among older Chinese: evidence from CHARLS / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the association between body mass index ( BMI ) and mortality risk among older Chinese based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study ( CHARLS ). @*Methods@#The demographic features, BMI, prevalence of chronic diseases and mortality among the elderly at ages of 60 years and greater were captured from the CHARLS database from 2011 to 2018. A multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to examine the association between BMI and the risk of death.@*Results@#Totally 6 023 subjects were enrolled, including 3 006 men ( 50.09% ) and 3 017 women ( 49.91% ), and 68.69% of the participants ( 4 137 subjects ) were at ages of 60 to 69 years. There were 637 subjects ( 10.58% ) with underweight, 1 544 ( 25.63% ) with overweight, and 557 ( 9.25% ) with obesity. During the follow-up period ( 35 091 person-years ), 1 035 subjects died. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed an increased risk of mortality among the underweight elderly ( HR=1.496, 95%CI 1.261-1.775 ) and a reduced risk of mortality among the obese elderly ( HR=0.671, 95%CI 0.511-0.881 ) relative to the elderly with normal weight, after adjustment for age, gender, smoking, household registration, administration of anti-diabetic drugs, administration of anti-dyslipidemia drugs, and administration of anti-hypertensive drugs.@*Conclusion@#It is found that the risk of mortality among the Chinese elderly correlatives with BMI through the analysis of CHARLS data.