BEING EVEN moderately obese, as many Irish people now are, cuts two to four years off a person’s life, researchers have found.
They also established that severe obesity can cut short a person’s life by up to 10 years.
The findings from an Oxford University team were published online yesterday by The Lancet medical journal.
The team assessed the effect of obesity on lifespan by analysing data on almost 900,000 adults mostly from western Europe and North America who took part in 57 separate studies. Their average age was 46 years.
They found that having a body mass index (BMI) above the “ideal” range of 22.5 to 25 led to higher death rates, and for every extra five units on the BMI scale over 25, they found overall mortality rose by about one-third.
Each additional five BMI units corresponded with a 40 per cent increase in deaths from heart and artery disease and strokes, an increase of 60 per cent to 120 per cent from diabetes and liver or kidney disease, a 10 per cent increase from cancer, and a 20 per cent increase from lung disease.
Moderate obesity, corresponding to a BMI range of 30 to 35, reduced survival by between two and four years. Severe obesity in the 40 to 45 BMI range cut lifespans by eight to 10 years, comparable to the effects of smoking.
Dr Gary Whitlock, one of the lead researchers, said it was clear excess weight shortens human lifespan. “In countries like Britain and America, weighing one-third more than the optimum shortens lifespan by about three years. For most people, one-third more than the optimum means carrying 20 to 30kg [50 to 60 pounds, or four stone] of excess weight,” he said.
“If you are becoming overweight or obese, avoiding further weight gain could well add years to your life,” he added.
Dr Donal O’Shea, who runs an obesity clinic at Loughlinstown hospital in Co Dublin, said the new research indicated things were worse than had been thought. Previous studies had suggested severe obesity could cut seven years off a person’s life but this latest study was indicating it could actually cost an individual up to 10 years of their life, he said.
“The particular Irish concern is the fact that we have a population of kids coming up and we have no reference point for how badly they will do but all the indications are they will do worse because they have been obese from an early age,” he added.
The most recent Slán survey published last year found 20 per cent of children in the Republic were overweight or obese.
It also found 41 per cent of men aged 18 to 44 years were overweight and 16 per cent obese, while 24 per cent of women in this age group were overweight and 17 per cent obese.
And among those aged over 45 years, it found 80 per cent of men and 71 per cent of women were overweight or obese.
BMI is calculated by dividing an individual’s height in metres squared by their weight in kilograms.