The team defined disability as having difficulty performing one or more activities of daily living ( ADLs ), such as walking across a room, bathing, eating, dressing, toileting, or transferring in or out of bed. Those who could perform all ADLs were considered active.
Using a sample of over 7,000 seniors, they reported statistical information separately by gender. At 70 years old, the men in the group could expect to live 12.3 years if they were non-obese and 12.4 if they were obese. The non-obese men could expect to live 9.8 active years and 2.5 disabled years. However, the obese men could only expect to live 8.4 active years and 4.0 years with disability.
In the same sample, women aged 70 could expect to live 15.3 years if they were non-obese and 15.5 years if they were obese. These women averaged 10.5 active years and 4.8 disabled years if they were non-obese, but the obese women only lived 8.1 active years and 7.4 disabled years.
This research supports recent assertions by the Centers for Disease Control that prior estimates of obesity's effects on mortality may have been over-estimated, since most studies of obesity do not account for its lesser effects on death rates at old age.
Support for the project was provided by grants from the National Institute on Aging and the University of South Florida Research Council.
The Gerontologist is a refereed publication of The Gerontological Society of America, the national organization of professionals in the field of aging.The article abstract is available online.