Abstract
Abstract Objective: to look into the socio-economic determinants of levels of three anthropometric measures of abdominal adiposity among older people in England -body mass index, waist circumference (WC), and waist-hip ratio (WHR)- and of changes along two health risk classifications: the World Health Organisation classification based on BMI levels and the WHO combined classification based on BMI and waist circumference measurements. Design: quantile regression and multinomial analysis using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), wave 2 (2004-05) and wave 4 (2008-09) Results: The quantile analysis on levels led to disparate results depending on the wave, which would question results previously published based on only one wave. However, we found that age tends to present an inverse U-shaped relationship with BMI and WC, smoking is negatively associated with BMI and positively with WC and WHR, alcohol consumption is negatively associated with BMI and WC levels, net total wealth is negatively related with the three anthropometric measures, educational attainment is negatively associated with each measure, and depression is positively associated with each measure. The multinomial analysis found that living in a larger household size increases the likelihood of becoming or remaining unhealthy irrespective of which classification we used. Furthermore, using the BMI-based categorisation, the initial category is highly relevant as a predictor of the category four years later and alcohol consumption would be positively associated with being or becoming obese. From the combined BMI-WC categorisation, we found that net total wealth would be negatively associated with becoming or remaining unhealthy whereas depression is a significant predictor of becoming or remaining unhealthy.
Highlights
It is generally accepted that being either underweight or obese are health risk factors amongst the older population and that the former poses greater risk than being obese among older people
body mass index (BMI) and positively with waist circumference (WC) and waist‐hip ratio (WHR), alcohol consumption is negatively associated with BMI and WC levels, net total wealth is negatively related with the three anthropometric measures, educational attainment is negatively associated with each measure, and depression is positively associated with each measure
From the combined BMI‐WC categorisation, we found that net total wealth would be negatively associated with becoming or remaining unhealthy whereas depression is a significant predictor of becoming or remaining unhealthy
Summary
It is generally accepted that being either underweight or obese are health risk factors amongst the older population and that the former poses greater risk than being obese among older people (ref.1). It is generally accepted that being either underweight or obese are health risk factors amongst the older population and that the former poses greater risk than being obese among older people How to define obesity in the older population is a matter of debate Obesity is measured by a variety of methods 4. The two field methods most often used in large surveys and epidemiological studies are anthropometry and bioelectrical impedance 5. The three main anthropometric measures of abdominal adiposity are the body mass index (BMI) –a measure of general adiposity‐ and the waist circumference and the waist‐hip ratio (both measures of central adiposity). BMI is, by far, the most well‐known and widely used indicator of adiposity
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