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Relationship Between BMI and All‐cause Mortality in Japan: NIPPON DATA80
Author(s) -
Hozawa Atsushi,
Okamura Tomonori,
Oki Izumi,
Murakami Yoshitaka,
Kadowaki Takashi,
Nakamura Koshi,
Miyamatsu Naomi,
Hayakawa Takehito,
Kita Yoshikuni,
Nakamura Yosikazu,
Nakamura Yasuyuki,
Abbott Robert D.,
Okayama Akira,
Ueshima Hirotsugu
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
obesity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.438
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1930-739X
pISSN - 1930-7381
DOI - 10.1038/oby.2008.237
Subject(s) - medicine , demography , body mass index , obesity , gerontology , sociology
As body composition in Asian populations is largely different from Western populations, a healthy BMI could also differ between the two populations. Thus, further study is needed to determine whether a healthy BMI in Asians should be lower than Western populations, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). We investigated the relationship between BMI and mortality in a sample of 8,924 Japanese men and women without stroke or heart disease. During 19 years of follow‐up, 1,718 deaths were observed. We found a U‐shaped relationship between BMI and fatal events. Risk of total mortality was highest in participants with BMI <18.5 kg/m 2 and lowest in participants with BMI 23.0–24.9 kg/m 2 . These findings persisted even after excluding the first 5 years of follow‐up with a focus on healthy participants who never smoked, were aged <70 years, and had total cholesterol (TC) levels ≥4.1 mmol/l ( N = 3712). For both the full sample and healthy participants, all‐cause mortality risk did not differ between BMI ranges 21.0–22.9 and 23.0–24.9 kg/m 2 . Our findings do not support the recent WHO implications that BMIs <23.0 kg/m 2 is healthy for Asians. Therefore, further studies are needed to identify an optimal BMI range for Asia.