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Epidemiology and Population Health

Multifactorial analysis of changes in body mass index across the adult life course: a study with 65 years of follow-up

International Journal of Obesity volume 38, pages 1133–1141 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background:

Although the negative consequences on health of being obese are well known, most adults gain weight across the lifespan. The general increase in body mass index (BMI) is mainly considered to originate from behavioral and environmental changes; however, few studies have evaluated the influence of these factors on change in BMI in the presence of genetic risk. We aimed to study the influence of multifactorial causes of change in BMI, over 65 years.

Methods and Findings:

Totally, 6130 participants from TwinGene, who had up to five assessments, and 536 from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging, who had up to 12 assessments, ranging over 65 years were included. The influence of lifestyle factors, birth cohort, cardiometabolic diseases and an individual obesity genetic risk score (OGRS) based on 32 single nucleotide polymorphisms on change in BMI was evaluated with a growth model. For both sexes, BMI increased from early adulthood to age of 65 years, after which the increase leveled off; BMI declined after age of 80 years. A higher OGRS, birth after 1925 and cardiometabolic diseases were associated with higher average BMI and a steeper increase in BMI prior to 65 years of age. Among men, few factors were identified that influence BMI trajectories in late life, whereas for women type 2 diabetes mellitus and dementia were associated with a steeper decrease in BMI after the age of 65 years.

Conclusions:

There are two turning points in BMI in late adulthood, one at the age of 65 years and one at the age 80 years. Factors associated with an increase in BMI in midlife were not associated with an increase in BMI after the age of 65 years. These findings indicate that the causes and consequences of change in BMI differ across the lifespan. Current health recommendations need to be adjusted accordingly.

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Acknowledgements

TwinGene is supported by the Swedish Research Council (M-2005 1112), GenomEUtwin (EU/QLRT-2001-01254; QLG2-CT-2002-01254), NIH DK U01-066134, The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF), and the Heart and Lung foundation (no. 20070481). SATSA is supported by the National Institute of Aging (AG04563, AG10175), the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Aging, the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) (97:0147:1B and 2009-0795) and the Swedish Research Council (825-2007-7460, 825-2009-6141). Data analyses are supported by FAS 2010-0704, Future Leaders of Aging Research in Europe (FLARE) postdoctoral grant 2010-1852 (AKD) and the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013; ENGAGE Consortium, grant agreement HEALTH-F4-2007- 201413).

Author Contributions

AKD was responsible for drafting the manuscript. AKD and CAR analyzed the data. AKD, CAR and NLP designed the current study. PKEM and NPL designed, initiated and directed TwinGene. NLP designed, initiated and directed SATSA, and CAR and AKD have directed later waves of data collection of SATSA. TF created the obesity genetic risk scores. All of the authors are responsible for the intellectual content of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    A K Dahl, T Fall, P K E Magnusson & N L Pedersen

  2. School of Health Sciences, Institute of Gerontology, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden

    A K Dahl

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, 92521, CA, USA

    C A Reynolds

  4. Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    T Fall

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089-1061, CA, USA

    N L Pedersen

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  1. A K Dahl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A K Dahl.

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Competing interests

Tove Fall has received speaker fees from MSD (Merck). The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Dahl, A., Reynolds, C., Fall, T. et al. Multifactorial analysis of changes in body mass index across the adult life course: a study with 65 years of follow-up. Int J Obes 38, 1133–1141 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2013.204

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