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Weight linked to elder mobility loss

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 21:01 CDT

U.S. researchers say weight gained early in life may lead to physical disabilities later in life.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, finds women overweight or obese from their mid-20s to their 70s were nearly three times more likely to develop mobility limitations than women with normal weight throughout. The risk for men was slightly less -- they were about 1.6 times more likely to develop mobility limitations.

We also found that, if you were of normal weight in old age but had previously been overweight or obese, you were at greater risk for mobility limitations, study lead investigator Denise Houston of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., says in a statement.

Dropping weight later in life, Houston says, can lead to problems with mobility because weight loss later in life is usually involuntary and the result of an underlying chronic condition.

The researchers analyzed information from 2,845 participants who were average age of 74. Participants reported no problems with mobility at the beginning of the study. Information on new mobility limitations was collected every six months over a seven-year period. Mobility limitation was defined as difficulty walking one quarter-mile or climbing 10 steps.

Source: United Press International

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