Body mass index cutoff points and their relationship to chronic non-communicable diseases in older people

Abstract

Objective To determine the association between nutritional status according to different cutoff points for body mass index (BMI) and the occurrence of noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCD) in older people. Methods A cross-sectional study of 365 older people was conducted using a questionnaire collecting information on health variables, body weight and height measurements. The association between classification of nutritional status using BMI and occurrence of NCD was estimated by the Odds Ratio (OR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (95%CI). Results As measured by the different BMI classification criteria, nutritional status varied: for normal weight (24.9-32.3%), excess weight (57.3-73.2%) and for underweight (1.9-15.3%). According to the Lipschitz classification, underweight was associated with lower occurrence of osteoarticular diseases (OR=0.38; 95%CI: 0.15-0.93) and cardiometabolic diseases (OR=0.42; 95%CI: 0.19- 0.94); while overweight was associated with higher occurrence of cardiometabolic diseases (OR=2.26; 95%CI: 1.30-3.93). According to the World Health Organization criteria, underweight was associated with lower occurrence of cardiometabolic diseases (OR=0.09; 95%CI: 0.01-0.61), overweight with lower occurrence of neuropsychological diseases (OR=0. 47; 95%CI: 0.26-0.87), while obese status was associated with higher occurrence of osteoarticular (OR=1.95; 95%CI: 1.08-3.52) and cardiometabolic (OR=3.02; 95%CI: 1.54-5.93) diseases. According to the Pan American Health Organization criteria, underweight was associated with lower occurrence of cardiometabolic diseases (OR=0.45; 95%CI: 0.22-0.91) and obese status with higher occurrence of osteoarticular (OR=1, 91; 95%CI: 1.16-3.15), cardiometabolic (OR=2.58; 95%CI: 1.36-4.85) and respiratory (OR=1.96; 95%CI: 1.16-3.16) diseases. Conclusion The classification criteria for BMI were negatively (underweight) and positively (excess weight) associated with the occurrence of NCD, exhibiting a stronger association when the overweight classification was differentiated from the obese classification.