Overweight People Less closer to Death than Underweight

March 29, 2014 Posted by Contributor

Not only obesity but being underweight is also a big threat for your health.

According to the Canadian researchers, people who are underweight have the highest risk of dying than those who are underweight.

While the risk of dying for obese people is 1.2 times, the risk of dying for those who are underweight is almost 1.8 times, the researchers said.

Dr Joel Ray of St Michael’s Hospital and his team analysed as many as 51 studies related to Body Mass Index (BMI) and deaths from any cause. Moreover, the data on newborn weight and stillbirths in Ontario were also included for the study.

During the study, the researchers found that the underweight adults with a BMI under 18.5 or less have a 1.8 times higher risk of dying than those who have a normal BMI of 18.5 to 24.9. However, for those who were obese with BMI of 30-34.9 have 1.2 times higher risk of dying. And those who were severely obese with a BMI of 35 or higher have 1.3 times higher death risk.

Health experts contribute malnourishment, heavy alcohol or drug use, smoking, low-income status, mental health or poor self-care as the common causes for being underweight. BMI reflects not only body fat but also muscle mass.

“If we want to continue to use BMI in health care and public health initiatives, we must realize that a robust and healthy individual is someone who has a reasonable amount of body fat and also sufficient bone and muscle,” Dr Ray said.

The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health.

BPH

What is considered a reasonable amount of body fat, bone and muscle? Also, what are the percentages of unhealthy lean people to fat people? Likely very few unhealthy lean people compared to the high amount of fat people.
David Gardner

“According to the Canadian researchers, people who are underweight have the highest risk of dying than those who are underweight.” Ever heard of proof-reading?
Gerrycgc

Anyone can put stories on the internet. Proofread.
Miss Julie

Do you not have an editor? So many problems with this article.

Also, don’t forget the classic Onion headline: “Death Rate Holds Steady at 100%.” If you don’t understand the statistics you are reporting, get someone else to write the article. Fat, skinny and average people all have exactly the same chance of dying.
- steve curtis
  
  Click on the “staff” link and you will see that Ms. Pierce, the author of this article, IS an editor!
  - Miss Julie
    
    Even her staff bio has typos in it!
    - zornwil
      
      OMG, I hate to be petty, but it is a bit odd, perhaps this is an Onion-styled publication and we’re not getting it. I think it’s worth reproducing here, it’s only 2 or 3 sentences (I’m not even sure): “Amanda makes her home in Salt Lake City it is a graduate of the University of Georgia where she earned her MBA. Her work has been published on numerous publications and has extensive Internet, print, and broadcast experience.”
      
      Well, I do suppose that her work might have more experience than she has (or “it” has – not judging, whichever pronoun the person prefers is up to them)! It is funny, perhaps this is a joke publication.
    - Tony Power
      
      Typical grammar and spelling from media unfortunately. Even my children were able to find the mistakes. They are 10 and 11.
Mindbreaker

Probably did not correct for people with wasting diseases of which there are plenty, underweight birth, and people with anorexia. Most of those people with anorexia just want to kill themselves but can’t face up to it or have some religious barrier to doing it. I suppose there are people eating themselves to death as well. More expensive but more pleasant 😉 More contempt from others though while the gaunt get looks of concern.

I have heard that being slightly overweight when elderly is better. More cushion when falling, more reserves if something goes wrong with digestion, less strain on their system if they get very cold, greater chance of having all the needed nutrients in the diet.

My grandfather was not, by any stretch, heavy but he dieted for a class reunion. I think a 70 year college reunion or something. He looked very trim, but I think he might not have done wisely. He died just a few years later maybe a year after he broke his hip. I don’t think he would have broken it had he had a bit more padding and would not have died for several more years, but that is just speculation.

I also think older people need to get their cataract surgeries rather than putting it off. Not being able to see is what often leads to the broken hips.

Really, it would be much more useful to have a graph so we can see when either extreme starts to really be a danger. And if this is going by BMI that is junk. Doctors really need to move away from that. Body fat %, far better.
MKR

“Less closer than”? “Highest than”? Then comes a sentence in which the risk of dying is said to be “1.2 times” for the overweight and “1.8 times” for the underweight. Apparently the writer has no awareness that she is writing utter gobbledigook. As someone has already noted, the risk of death for all human beings is 100%.
Laurence Lu

So what if you are undrweight and don’t have heavy alcohol use, smoking, malnourishment, low-income status, poor mental health or self-care? Does that make us less close to death than stated? (Everybody has a 100% chance of dying eventually, unless complete immortality is reached)
TheCoconut

That second sentence sounds like it was pulled from a TMZ article. You might want to double check your stories.
Cgar

Who proof-read this article? “people who are underweight have the highest risk of dying than those who are underweight”?
Guest

Whoever wrote the headline must be a fat-head: ”
Overweight People Less closer to Death than Underweight (less closer, really ? Too bad the author doesn’t write “more better”)
wohio

Whoever wrote the headline must be a fat-head: “Overweight People Less closer to Death than Underweight”… “less closer”, really? Too bad the author doesn’t write “more better”!!
lorenzo

TYPO?
people who are underweight have the highest risk of dying than those who are underweight.
Muriel Eaton

Should it not be “less close…” ?
Will Lonkausky

people that care about spelling and typo errors in internet articles are tools, who cares if there are mistakes in the writing, get over it and move on, no one cares about the spelling police
- kevin
  
  tank to Bill hoow kares bout speling gramars add udder stuf lick tat.
  tis not lick it leeds to cunfssion and lag of udder standding.Specily ween tear is so money umplyed college gradutits dieng for a jobb
  - zornwil
    
    Thanks, I should have read your response before mine, you did a better job of illustrating why this matters! 🙂
- Michael Stern
  
  Defend this horrible article all you like. It is essentially a rehash of several other, grammatically correct, versions of the very same story covered by other media outlets. The similarities are suggestive of plagiarism.
  
  This is bad enough, but if you cant even copy a story without mucking up the grammar you wind up getting laughed at.
  
  The mockery is very well deserved.
- zornwil
  
  Writing well is important in journalism because it increases clarity and, thereby, also increases the credibility of the article. For example, if I write “less closer” versus “less close,” do we know, with the mistake of the former, if the intent was not actually simply “closer” without the “less?” Of course, we can infer from context, but that introduces increased risk of the reader misunderstanding.
- LiberalGilt
  
  Know won kares about yoo
  - Will Lonkausky
    
    or you, please stop sucking cocks
    - LiberalGilt
      
      Suddenly you’re a homophobe but it didnt stop you from blowing me
Russ Klettke

The BMI measure is challenged by anyone who seriously exercises — our BMIs are high because we are muscular; the BMI does not distinguish between fat weight and muscle weight. Measuring individual health is a lot more complex than simple metrics such as weight or BMI.
Arezzo

“Less closer”? Illiterates are now editing the news.
spelunker

NEWS FLASH! More stupider people found to be 100% more stupider than more stupider people.
johnscott87

The study is basically worthless to most people. If you add underweight newborn/stillborn births, you completely skew the data. If they wanted to make headlines we can count this as a win, but anybody who has taken more than 3 weeks of a college statistics class can tell you how flawed this data is, and how irrelevant the headline is for most people.
Making fat people feel better-WIN.
Adding information for general health knowledge-FAIL
zornwil

Headline correction, “…Less Close…,” not “…Less closer…”
BadClown

Sure they are! Sure! Hey fatties ‘n beanpoles – tries the menu at God’s Own Diner. That’ll fixes yous all!

http://vimeo.com/82718477