WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Apr 14, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- 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.
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