Weight gained in two years by a population of mid-aged women: how much is too much?

Abstract

Objective: To establish the prevalence of weight change in mid-aged women over a 2-year period, and to assess the relationship between weight change and physical and mental well-being (SF36) in order to begin debate about the need for quantified standards of weight gain. Design: Prospective study of weight change and well-being over a 2-year period among mid-aged women participating in a large national survey. Subjects: Seven thousand two hundred and seventy women without surgical menopause aged between 45 and 50 years (termed mid-aged), enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Measurements: Weight change (self-reported weight at two time points) and physical and mental well-being (SF-36) explored using linear regression, while adjusting for potential confounders. Results: Only half the women maintained their weight within 2.25 kg, and one-third gained more than this amount in a 2-year period. While weight gain (X2.25 kg) was negatively associated with physical well-being, both weight loss and weight gain were associated with poorer mental well-being. Conclusion: This is the first prospective study using a large, population-based cohort to demonstrate that small changes in weight are associated with changes in well-being in mid-aged Australian women. It provides further evidence of the need for public health messages to specify the actual amount that constitutes weight gain, but further research is needed to establish these standards for the entire population.

Eating in response to hunger and satiety signals is related to BMI in a nationwide sample of 1601 mid-age New Zealand women

“…Mid-age is a time when women are at particular risk of weight gain (13) . In a cohort of more than 8000 Australian women aged 45-50 years, over a 2-year period a third of the women gained 2?25 kg or more, nearly 18 % gained 4?5 kg or more, and there was a mean weight gain of 1 kg (28) . Among 3064 US women aged 42-52 years, mean weight increased by 2?1 kg over 3 years of follow-up (13) .…”

Weight Gain, Overweight, and Obesity: Determinants and Health Outcomes from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health

“…Overweight and obese women were more likely to develop hypertension, heart disease, asthma [16] and diabetes [16,26], and to report hysterectomy, than healthy weight women [27]. Overall, women who gained at least 2.25 kg over two years reported poorer physical and mental well-being [28] and those who reported more than 5kg weight gain over three years also reported more menopausal symptoms [29].…”

“…Overweight or 13 of 19 obese women were also more likely to report declining physical functioning [34,35] and linked data showed increased incidence of acute adverse health events, including hospital admissions [30] and stroke [35]. In the entire body of work on weight and health in this cohort of women, the only positive health outcome of high BMI was reduced risk of osteoporosis [28]. This is because the increased load on the skeleton of high BMI individuals promotes higher bone mineral density [36].…”

“…The optimal BMI for health outcomes and mortality is around 25-27 kg/m 2 in the older ALSWH cohort [28]. This work highlights that generic adult BMI cut points may not be appropriate in predicting the healthy weight range in older adults [30].…”

Preventing weight gain: a population cohort study of the nature and effectiveness of mid-age women's weight control practices

“…7,8,[14][15][16][17] There is actually little population-level data on the long-term effectiveness of weight control practices used by women, particularly at mid-age, which is a stage when women are at risk of weight gain. [21][22][23] Findings from the 1996 baseline survey (Survey 1) of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH), also known as Women's Health Australia (WHA), showed that around half the 13 716 women in the mid-age cohort (aged 45-50 years) had attempted to lose weight in the previous year, and that only one in five of these women reported being happy with her weight. 4,24 At the same time, there was a high prevalence of overweight (30%) and obesity (18%) in the cohort.…”