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Here's yet another reason to maintain a healthy weightas you age: Obesity and disability are linked.
Older adults who are obese develop more disabilities that interfere with daily living than older adults
who are normal weight or slightly overweight, according to a new study.
For some types of disabilities, the risk among obese people is twice as great as among normal-weight
people.
"It's not just that obese people have a higher risk [of these disabilities] than normal-weight people,"
says researcher Dawn Alley, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Health and Society Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. "What is new
about this research is that the risk is actually increasing in obese people over time."
Adults aged 60 and over who are slightly overweight did not have much of an increased risk of
impairment, Alley says. But in those who were obese, the risk rose at a rate she considers
"concerning." The more obese, the greater the risk, she found.
While previous research has suggested that the effect of obesity on disability remained constant over
time, with disability rising in both the obese and the non-obese, the new study, published in the Nov. 7
issue of v
 



  suggests otherwise.

Alley and co-researcher Virginia W. Chang, MD, PhD, looked at the association between obesity and
disability by analyzing data from a large national survey at two different time points. They looked at
the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys for 1988 to 1994 and for 1999 to 2004. In all,
they evaluated the obesity-disability association for nearly 10,000 adults aged 60 and older.
Obesity became more common over time. While 23.5% of participants in the first survey were obese,
31.7% of those in the second survey were.
Participants were classified as having a functional limitation if they had much difficulty or an inability to
perform any of six everyday activities. These included walking a quarter mile, walking up 10 steps
without resting, lifting or carrying 10 pounds, walking between rooms on the same floor, standing up
from an armless chair, and the actions of stooping, crouching, and kneeling.
They also evaluated each participant's limitations in activities of daily living and classified them as
limited if they had much difficulty or couldn't perform any of three tasks: getting in and out of bed,
dressing themselves, and eating.
"At time point 1, obese older people were only 50% more likely than normal-weight people to be
functionally impaired," says Alley. "At time point 2, they were 98% more likely to be functionally
impaired than normal-weight people."
"The risk of functional impairment among obese elderly increased 24% over time," she tells WebMD.
During the first survey, the risk of having a limitation in daily living activities wasn't significantly
different between obese and normal-weight participants. But by the second survey, the risk of having
such difficulty was twice as great for obese people.
Study Interpretations shows the increases are concerning for a couple of reasons, Alley says.
"One is, it means obese people are experiencing more potentially preventable impairments," she tells
WebMD. "Second is that it means in the future, if this trend continues, increasing obesity rates are
likely to slow health improvements in the elderly," such as better cardiovascular health due to better
treatment.
"The change over time [in increased disability] is what is really surprising," Alley says.
The more obese, the higher the disability risk, the researchers also found. They classified the obese
people in three segments: those with a body mass index of BMI of 30 to 34.9, those with a BMI of 35
to 39.9, and those with a BMI of 40 and above.
A 5-foot 8-inch person who weighs 164 has a BMI of 24.9 (the top of the healthy range). A person the
same height who weighs 197 has a BMI of 30; one who weights 263 has a BMI of 40.
More Obese People Becoming Disabled. "We've seen evidence for a while that obesity relates to
disability," says Edward W. Gregg, PhD, an epidemiologist at the CDC's Division of Diabetes
Translation, who co-authored an editorial to accompany the study. What the new study shows,
however, is that more obese people are disabled than in the past.

That may be due, Gregg, Alley, and her co-researcher believe, to the fact that the people studied in
the second time period have spent more years being obese than those studied in the first time period
when obesity was not as common. In effect, the years of obesity have caught up with them.
That explanation makes sense to Roland Sturm, PhD, senior economist at the Rand Corp. in Santa
Monica, Calif., who has published predictions about obesity causing more disability. "It's long been
known than obesity has a lot do to with disability," he tells WebMD after reviewing the new study. "The
new wrinkle here is, the effect of obesity on disability may have increased."
He adds: "The effects of obesity, just like the effects of smoking, only show up after a while."

Source:

Retrieved February 23, 2011 from www.webmd.com by Kathleen Doheny WebMD Health News
Summary:

For some types of disabilities, the risk among obese people is twice as great as among normal-weight
people. It's not just that obese people have a higher risk [of these disabilities] than normal-weight
people. Adults aged 60 and over who are slightly overweight did not have much of an increased risk
of impairment. But in those who were obese, the risk rose at a rate she considers "concerning." The
more obese, the greater the risk. While previous research has suggested that the effect of obesity on
disability remained constant over time, with disability rising in both the obese and the non-obese, the
new study, published in the Nov. 7 issue of v
   
 
 
 
 
 suggests otherwise. Obesity became more common over time. Participants were
classified as having a functional limitation if they had much difficulty or an inability to perform any of
six everyday activities. These included walking a quarter mile, walking up 10 steps without resting,
lifting or carrying 10 pounds, walking between rooms on the same floor, standing up from an armless
chair, and the actions of stooping, crouching, and kneeling. Study Interpretations shows the increases
are concerning for a couple of reasons. The more obese, the higher the disability risk, the researchers
also found. They classified the obese people in three segments: those with a body mass index of BMI
of 30 to 34.9, those with a BMI of 35 to 39.9, and those with a BMI of 40 and above.

Reaction:

Obesity, the condition of being grossly overweight, has hit people of all ages, across the globe. Many factors
contribute to obesity, one of the chief reasons being junk food and lack of exercise. Obese people, out
of laziness or the mere reason of being overweight, often skip regular exercises, even the simple
ones. Worst is the case of those people who live on earth just to stuff themselves with food! With self-
determination and some efforts, you can help yourself a great deal in preventing the condition of being
obese. As a student nurse, I will teach my client and educate her about Obesity, how to prevent it,
what causes it, how to manage it and what are the possible complications or secondary conditions
that may arise when one is obese.

On my health teaching, first i will inform my client to do simple activities, such as climbing the stairs,
morning and evening walk in the park or simply exercising or moving of the limbs can bring about
tremendous changes in your lifestyle. Such activities will not only help you burn excess fat, but also
help you stay active. Start doing light to moderate exercises for thirty minutes, for a couple of times a
week. Second, drinking lots of water will help your body detoxify all the impurities present in the
system. Doctors recommend that one should drink at least 8-10 glasses of water a day. Remember,
water cleanses and rejuvenates your skin as well. Third, one of the prerequisites of staying healthy is
avoiding junk foods. The smart way to stay away from junk food is not to buy them at all! Avoid
frequenting the fast food chains. Forth, do not cut any of the three meals per day. Rather, divide them
into small meals. At the same time, cut off high-calorie snacks in between the meals. Eat small
portions of food and do not gulp them down. Do not stuff yourself with food when you are not hungry.
Eat only when your body signals you to have food. Eat slowly because the stomach takes some time
to feel µfull¶. And Lastly, your diet should be balanced, with fruits, vegetables and whole grains
included in it. An obese adult should have at least five servings of low-sugar fruits and vegetables on
a day. A vegetable serving shall include one cup of raw or one and half cup of cooked vegetables.
One piece of fresh fruit and one and half cup of canned fruit are included in a serving of fruit. You
should avoid fruits and vegetables that are high in calories, like mango.