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Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007

17. bis 21.09.2007, Augsburg

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Weight change, weight cycling and mortality in the ERFORT male cohort study

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  • Peter Rzehak - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany and Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Institute of Medical Data Management, Biometrics and Epidemiology, Munich, Germany, Neuherberg
  • Christa Meisinger - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany and Central Hospital of Augsburg, MONICA/KORA Myocardial Infarction Registry, Augsburg, Germany, Neuherberg
  • Gabriele Woelke - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany, Neuherberg
  • Sabine Brasche - Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Department of Indoor Climatology, Jena, Germany
  • Gert Strube - Medical School Erfurt, Department for Preventive Cardiology, Erfurt, Germany
  • Joachim Heinrich - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany, Neuherberg

Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007. Augsburg, 17.-21.09.2007. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2007. Doc07gmds339

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gmds2007/07gmds339.shtml

Published: September 6, 2007

© 2007 Rzehak et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: To investigate the effect of weight change and weight fluctuations on all-cause-mortality in men.

Methods: Within a prospective population-based cohort of 1160 men aged 40-59 years at recruitment, complete weight change patterns from baseline and three follow-up examinations during a period of 15 years of follow-up was used to categorize the 505 men into stable obese, stable non-obese, weight gain, weight loss and weight fluctuation groups. For these men (age range: 55-74 yrs at start time of survival analysis) further survival was analyzed during the subsequent 15 years.

Results: Overall, 183 deaths were observed among the 505 men. Only weight fluctuations had a clear significant impact on all-cause mortality. Adjusted hazard rate ratio (HRR (95%-CI)) was 1.87 (1.31-2.67) after adjustment for age group, pre-existing cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus, smoking and socio-economic status. The risk rate due to weight loss was borderline significant (HRR=1.73 (0.93-3.24)). Risk of death due to weight gain (HRR=1.15 (0.70-1.90)) or stable obesity (HRR=1.12 (0.67-1.89)), however, were not significantly increased compared to men staying non-obese for the first 15 years after cohort recruitment.

Conclusion: Weight fluctuations are a major risk factor for all-cause mortality in middle aged men. Moreover, stable obesity does not increase further mortality in men aged 55-74 years in long-term follow-up.