(14-07-06) Health risk increases with higher levels of obesity

Not all obese women have the same health risks because the risks increase with higher levels of obesity, researchers say.
Women who are extremely obese have a higher incidence of high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol than women at lower levels of obesity, the research found.
The study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at data from more than 90,000 women participating in the Women's Health Initiative-Observational Study.
The women were assigned to five weight categories according to their body mass index (BMI): normal (18.5 to 24.9), overweight (25.0 to 29.9), obesity 1 (30.0 to 34.9), obesity 2 (35.0 to 39.9) and extreme obesity (40 and over).
The researchers examined the rates of death and of newly diagnosed heart disease for these women over a seven-year period.
The study found that women in the obesity 1 category had a 12 per cent higher risk of death over a follow-up period of seven years than women of normal weight.
Extremely obese women, however, had an 86 per cent higher risk of death than women of normal weight.
The study also found that other health risk factors increase with each increasing category of obesity.
The researchers, led by Dr. Kathleen McTigue of the University of Pittsburgh, said it was unclear before this study whether health risk increases or plateaus with increasing weight through the obese range.
McTigue said the finding could be significant because of the rapid rise of extreme obesity in the U.S. From 1986 to 2000, the number of Americans with a BMI of 30 or higher doubled, while the number with a BMI of 40 or higher quadrupled.

Fonte: CBC News

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