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Eighteen-year trends in obesity among the elderly.

SIR—Obesity is an established risk factor for morbidity and mortality in the population [1, 2]. Research into its association with health among the elderly, however, has produced contradictory findings. While a substantial number of studies have detected no differences in mortality between normal weight and slightly overweight elderly people [2], others have found obesity to be a health hazard among older people [2–4]. As obesity is a risk factor for major public health concerns such as cardiovascular diseases and physical disability [3, 5, 6], it is essential to obtain information on nationwide trends in obesity in order to foresee potential problems and to identify any subgroups with unfavourable risk factor profiles. Previous studies from industrialised countries have also shown an upward trend in obesity among elderly people [7–11]. Obesity among the elderly has been shown to decline with advancing age [12]. How obesity varies by sociodemographic factors has been largely neglected in studies of elderly people [12]. There is some evidence that those with less education are more likely to be obese than the better educated elderly [9, 12, 13]. Non-married elderly women appear to be slightly more prone to obesity than married women [12], but there are results suggesting that marital status is not related to body size [13]. The aim of this study was to analyse trends and patterns of obesity by age, previous occupation and marital status (body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m) among Finnish elderly aged 65–79 years from 1985 to 2003.