Height, weight and mortality in a population of longshoremen

Abstract

The 3,992 examined longshoremen, averaging 17 per cent over Metropolitan standard of weight for height, show no excess of mortality from all causes and no excess from coronary heart disease during the first 5 years after examination. They show no gradient of total mortality with weight, even those 40 per cent and more over Metropolitan standard of weight for height showing no excess mortality. The 78 examined longshoremen who died of coronary heart disease in the 5 years after examination did not differ in weight from the total of those examined. Only 12 of the 78 coronary heart deaths occurred among those diagnosed as having coronary heart disease after referral for positive findings at the multiphasic screening examination.