Obesity Leads to More Unhealthy Years of Life

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Visscher TL, Rissanen A, Seidell JC, et al.: Obesity and unhealthy life-years in adult Finns: An empirical approach. Arch Intern Med 164:1413-1420, 2004.

What is the problem and what is known about it so far?

Obesity is more likely to lead to illness and disability than to early death. Overweight people may have a lower quality of life than normal-weight people.

In this study, researchers asked: How many more unhealthy years of life do obese people face?

Who was studied?

A total of 19,518 Finnish adults. At the study's beginning, their average age was 45 years. They were followed for 15 years.

How was the study done?

A Finnish agency carried out health examinations in four areas of Finland. They used a random sample of residents, plus employees of selected factories.

Participants filled out questionnaires with items including medical history, smoking habits, alcohol use, and physical activity.

Participants had blood pressure, height, and body weight measured. Researchers calculated body mass index (BMI), which is a measure of body size.

Participants were followed up to 15 years after the study started. Researchers tracked work disability and hospitalizations for heart disease. They also tracked the need for long-term medication. That information was used to calculate unhealthy years of life.

In this study, researchers focused on nonsmokers. Smoking itself contributes to illness and disability. Researchers did not want to confuse the issues of smoking and obesity.

What did the researchers find?

Of nonsmokers, 7.4% of the men and 15.6% of the women under the age of 65 years were obese. In those aged 65 years and older, 15.5% of men and 29.3% of women were obese.

Work disability, heart disease, and need for long-term medication were more common for obese participants than for normal-weight participants.

In men, obesity was more strongly linked to unhealthy years of life than death rate. In women, obesity was not linked to higher death rate.

Obese men aged 20 to 64 years had 0.63 more years of work disability than normal-weight men. They had 0.36 more years of heart disease and 1.68 more years of long-term medication.

Obese women aged 20 to 64 years had 0.52 more years of work disability than normal-weight women. They had 0.46 more years of heart disease and 1.49 more years of long-term medication.

Obese men aged 65 years and older had 1.71 more years of long-term medication than normal-weight men. Obese women aged 65 years and older had 1.41 more years of long-term medication.

What were the limitations of the study?

Some participants had heart disease before the study started. Their information was left out of the heart disease figures. So heart disease percentages may have been too low.

What are the implications of the study?

If overweight and obesity continue to rise, higher health-care costs and more unhealthy years of life will result.