Obesity, Overweight, and Health: A Longitudinal Analysis from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

Wiktoria Wróblewska , SGH Warsaw School of Economics
Agnieszka Chlon-Dominczak, Warsaw School o Economics

Objective: This study investigates the prevalence of obesity/overweight related health conditions for Europeans aged 50+ and possible long-term effects using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. Methods: We analyzed panel data for 16,184 individuals from nine countries from waves 4 and 9 of the survey, conducted in 2010/2011 and 2021/2022. The health outcomes included self-reported health, mental health, and four chronic health conditions (diabetes or high blood sugar, heart attack, high blood pressure or hypertension, and arthritis). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to predict health outcomes focusing on the importance of the Body Mass Index, and the occurrence of a deterioration in health status or diagnosis of disease in the follow-up time. Various socio-demographic covariates were included, such as educational level, household income (percentiles), smoking, activities of daily living, and age. Results: The prevalence of obesity and overweight changes around retirement age, taking the shape of an inverted U, and weight gain occurs earlier in men than in women. The obese and overweight individuals had higher risks for most of the health conditions studied, as well as were more vulnerable to a deterioration in health compared to people of normal weight in the cross-sectional analysis and over a 10-year period. The strongest effect occurs in people living with obesity, especially those with severe obesity. The effects of obesity on health vary significantly between women and men and were more linked to obesity in women. The change in BMI during the study period had little impact on health outcomes, except for significant weight loss.

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 Presented in Session 10. Non-Communicable Diseases and Cardio-Metabolic Health