Researchers in the U.S. are suggesting that women who are overweight at the age of 18 have a higher risk of dying young.
Children and adolescents in the U.S. and around the world are becoming more overweight and according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) there may be serious consequences to that trend.
Rob van Dam, a research scientist in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH and the lead author, found that in a study of 102,400 female nurses in the Nurses' Health Study II, a prospective study launched in 1989, that being overweight at age 18 is associated with an increased risk of premature death in younger and middle-aged women.
The study showed that women who were overweight or obese when 18, drank more alcohol, smoked more and were less likely to exercise as teens and were also more likely to die between the ages of 36 and 56.
The researchers say the more a women weighed at 18, the greater her risk of dying young; women who were moderately overweight at 18 were more than 50 percent more likely to die in the 12 years of follow-up, and obese women were more than twice as likely to die, as the slimmest 18-year-olds.
Rob van Dam says the findings support other studies on overweight in middle-aged and older populations by providing insight into the impact of adolescent overweight on adult mortality.
At the outset study participants who were all aged 24 to 44, recorded their current height and weight and their weight at age 18.
Researchers calculated body mass index (BMI) and participants also gave information on disease history, alcohol consumption, smoking and exercise.