Objectively Assessed Weight Change and All-Cause Mortality among Community-Dwelling Older People

Tagrid Alharbi; Joanne Ryan; Rosanne Freak-Poli; Danijela Gasevic; Jacqueline Scali; Karen Ritchie; Marie-Laure Ancelin; Alice J Owen

doi:10.3390/nu14142983

Objectively Assessed Weight Change and All-Cause Mortality among Community-Dwelling Older People

Nutrients. 2022 Jul 21;14(14):2983. doi: 10.3390/nu14142983.

Authors

Tagrid Alharbi¹, Joanne Ryan¹, Rosanne Freak-Poli^{1

2}, Danijela Gasevic^{1

3}, Jacqueline Scali⁴, Karen Ritchie^{4

5}, Marie-Laure Ancelin⁴, Alice J Owen¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, 553 St. Kilda Rd, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia.
² Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Centre, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
³ Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK.
⁴ INM, Université de Montpellier, INSERM, 34000 Montpellier, France.
⁵ Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH16 4SB, UK.

Abstract

Later life changes in body weight may be associated with an increased risk of mortality in older adults. The objective of this study was to examine whether weight change over four years was associated with a 17-year mortality risk in older adults. Participants were 1664 community-dwelling adults aged ≥65 years in the longitudinal Enquete de Sante’ Psychologique-Risques, Incidence et Traitement (ESPRIT) study. Outcomes were all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality. Weight change was defined as difference between weight at baseline and 4 years, categorised into: weight stable (±<5% weight change), weight loss (≥5%) and weight gain (≥5%). Association between weight change and mortality risk was evaluated using Cox proportional hazards models. Over 17 years of follow-up (median 15 years), 565 participants died. Compared to stable weight participants, those with ≥ 5% weight loss had an increased risk of all-cause mortality (HR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.00−1.56, p = 0.05) and CVD mortality (HR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.10−2.14, p = 0.01), but not cancer mortality (HR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.50−1.39, p = 0.49). Weight gain of ≥5% was not associated with increased mortality (HR: 1.05, 95% CI: 0.76−1.45, p = 0.74). Weight monitoring in older adults could help identify weight loss at its early stages to better target interventions to maintain nutritional reserve and prevent premature mortality.

Keywords: aged; ageing; body weight; body weight maintenance; healthy aging; mortality; older adults; weight change; weight gain; weight loss.

MeSH terms

Aged
Cardiovascular Diseases*
Humans
Independent Living*
Proportional Hazards Models
Risk Factors
Weight Gain
Weight Loss

Grants and funding

The ESPRIT project is financed by the regional government of Languedoc-Roussillon, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche Project 07 LVIE 004, and an unconditional grant from Novartis. The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; in data collection, management, analysis or interpretation of the data and were not involved with the writing, preparation, review or approval of the manuscript. Tagrid Alharbi is a recipient of the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques Overseas Scholarship Program. Joanne Ryan is funded by a fellowship (APP1135727 from the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC)), Australia. Rosanne Freak-Poli is funded by National Heart Foundation of Australia post-doctoral fellowship (101927).