Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:58:01.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mortality attributable to higher-than-optimal body mass index in New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Cliona Ni Mhurchu ,
Maria Turley ,
Niki Stefanogiannis ,
Carlene MM Lawes ,
Anthony Rodgers ,
Stephen Vander Hoorn  and
Martin Tobias
Cliona Ni Mhurchu*
Affiliation:
Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92 019, Auckland, New Zealand
Maria Turley
Affiliation:
Public Health Intelligence Unit, Ministry of Health, Wellington, New Zealand
Niki Stefanogiannis
Affiliation:
Public Health Intelligence Unit, Ministry of Health, Wellington, New Zealand
Carlene MM Lawes
Affiliation:
Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92 019, Auckland, New Zealand
Anthony Rodgers
Affiliation:
Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92 019, Auckland, New Zealand
Stephen Vander Hoorn
Affiliation:
Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92 019, Auckland, New Zealand
Martin Tobias
Affiliation:
Public Health Intelligence Unit, Ministry of Health, Wellington, New Zealand
*
*Corresponding author: Email [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Objectives

To estimate the burden of mortality in New Zealand due to higher-than-optimal body mass index (BMI) in 1997, as well as mortality that could be avoided in 2011 with feasible changes in mean population BMI.

Setting

New Zealand.

Design

Comparative risk assessment methodology was used to estimate the attributable and avoidable mortality due to high BMI. Outcomes assessed were ischaemic heart disease (IHD), ischaemic stroke, type 2 diabetes mellitus, colorectal cancer and postmenopausal breast cancer.

Results

In 1997, 3154 deaths (11% of all deaths) in New Zealand were due to higher-than-optimal BMI (<21 kg m−2). This amounted to 83% of diabetes deaths, 24% of IHD deaths, 15% of ischaemic stroke deaths and 4% of all cancer deaths. If the projected increase in mean population BMI by 2011 was limited to 1.0 kg m−2 rather than 1.3 kg m−2, approximately 385 deaths could be prevented annually, mainly from diabetes.

Conclusions

These results quantify the importance of higher-than-optimal BMI as a major modifiable cause of premature death in New Zealand. Intervention policies that would have only modest effects on slowing the rate of increase in mean population BMI by 2011 could still prevent hundreds of deaths annually.

Keywords

Body mass indexObesityMortalityNew Zealand
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , June 2005 , pp. 402 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

1James, PT, Leach, R, Kalamara, E, Shayeghi, M. The worldwide obesity epidemic. Obesity Research 2001; 9(Suppl. 4): 228S–33S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic. Geneva: WHO, 2000.Google Scholar
3James, WPT, Jackson-Leach, R, Ni Mhurchu, C, Kalamara, E, Shayeghi, M, Rigby, NJ, et al. Overweight and obesity (high body mass index). In: Ezzati, M, Lopez, AD, Rodgers, A, Murray, CJL, eds. Comparative Quantification of Health Risks: Global and Regional Burden of Disease Attributable to Selected Major Risk Factors. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2004; 497–596.Google Scholar
4Flegal, KM, Carroll, MD, Ogden, LG, Johnson, CL. Prevalence and trends in obesity among US adults, 1999–2000. Journal of the American Medical Association 2002; 288: 1723–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5Department of Health. Health Survey for England: Trend Data for Adults 1993–2001. London: Department of Health, 2003.Google Scholar
6Du, S, Lu, B, Zhai, F, Popkin, BM. A new stage of the nutrition transition in China. Public Health Nutrition 2002; 5(1A) 169–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7Wilson, BD, Wilson, NC, Russell, DG. Obesity and body fat distribution in the New Zealand population. New Zealand Medical Journal 2001; 114: 127–30.Google ScholarPubMed
8Ni Mhurchu, C, Rodgers, A, Pan, WH, Gu, DF, Woodward, M, on behalf of the Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration. Body mass index and cardiovascular disease in the Asia–Pacific region: an overview of 33 cohorts involving 310,000 participants. International Journal of Epidemiology 2004; 33: 751–8.Google Scholar
9Whitlock, G, Lewington, S, Ni Mhurchu, C. Coronary heart disease and body mass index: a systematic review of the evidence from large prospective cohort studies. Seminars in Vascular Medicine 2002; 2(4): 369–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Dyer, AR, Elliott, P, Shipley, M, Stamler, R, Stamler, J, on behalf of the INTERSALT Cooperative Research Group. Body mass index and associations of sodium and potassium with blood pressure in INTERSALT. Hypertension 1994; 23(1): 729–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11Denke, MA, Sempos, CT, Grundy, SM. Excess body weight. An underrecognized contributor to high blood cholesterol levels in white American men. Archives of Internal Medicine 1993; 153: 1093–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12Denke, MA, Sempos, CT, Grundy, SM. Excess body weight. An under-recognized contributor to dyslipidemia in white American women. Archives of Internal Medicine 1994; 154: 401–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13Grinker, JA, Tucker, KL, Vokonas, PS, Rush, D. Changes in patterns of fatness in adult men in relation to serum indices of cardiovascular risk: the Normative Aging Study. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 2000; 24: 1369–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14Chan, JM, Rimm, EB, Colditz, GA, Stampfer, MJ, Willett, WC. Obesity, fat distribution, and weight gain as risk factors for clinical diabetes in men. Diabetes Care 1994; 17(9): 961–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15Carey, VJ, Walters, EE, Colditz, GA, Solomon, CG, Willett, WC, Rosner, BA, et al. Body fat distribution and risk of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in women. The Nurses' Health Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 1997; 145: 614–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16Calle, EE, Rodriguez, C, Walker-Thurmond, K, Thun, MJ. Overweight, obesity, and mortality from cancer in a prospectively studied cohort of US adults. New England Journal of Medicine 2003; 348(17): 1625–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Bergstrom, A, Pisani, P, Tenet, V, Wolk, A, Adami, HO. Overweight as an avoidable cause of cancer in Europe. International Journal of Cancer 2001; 91: 421–30.3.0.CO;2-T>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18Willett, WC, Dietz, WH, Colditz, GA. Guidelines for healthy weight. New England Journal of Medicine 1999; 341(6): 427–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19Ezzati, MLA, Rodgers, A, Vander Hoorn, S, Murray, CJL, and the Comparative Risk Assessment Collaborative Group. Selected major risk factors and global and regional burden of disease. Lancet 2002; 360: 1347–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20Ministry of Health and University of Auckland. Nutrition and the Burden of Disease: New Zealand 1997–2011. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 2003.Google Scholar
21World Health Organization (WHO). Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life. World Health Report 2002. Geneva: WHO, 2002.Google Scholar
22Russell, DG, Parnell, WR, Wilson, NC, Faed, J, Ferguson, E, Herbison, P, et al. NZ Food: NZ People. Key Results of the 1997 National Nutrition Survey. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 1999.Google Scholar
23Clayton, D, Schifflers, E. Models for temporal variation in cancer rates. II: Age–period–cohort models. Statistics in Medicine 1987; 6: 469–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24Ministry of Health. Cancer in New Zealand: Trends and Projections. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 2002.Google Scholar
25Murray, CJ, Lopez, AD. The Global Burden of Disease. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.Google ScholarPubMed
26Ministry of Health. Modelling Stroke: A Multi-state Life Table Model. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 2002.Google Scholar
27Birkbeck, JA. New Zealanders and Their Diet: A Report to the National Heart Foundation of New Zealand on the National Diet Survey 1977. Auckland: National Heart Foundation, 1979.Google Scholar
28Russell, DG, Wilson, NC. Life in New Zealand Survey.Vol. V: Health. Dunedin: University of Otago, 1991.Google Scholar
29Swinburn, B. Using the body mass index: weigh then weigh up. New Zealand Medical Journal 1998; 111(1075): 377–9.Google ScholarPubMed
30Mathers, CD, Vos, T, Stevenson, C. The Burden of Disease and Injury in Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 1999.Google Scholar
31Mathers, CD, Vos, ET, Stevenson, CE, Begg, SJ. The Australian burden of disease study: measuring the loss of health from diseases, injuries and risk factors. Medical Journal of Australia 2000; 172: 592–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
32Diderichsen, F, Dahlgren, G, Vagero, D. Determinants of the Burden of Disease in the European Union. Stockholm: National Institute of Public Health, 1997.Google Scholar
33Rose, G. Sick individuals and sick populations. International Journal of Epidemiology 1985; 14: 32–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
34Ministry of Health. The Burden of Disease and Injury in New Zealand. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 2001; 1.Google Scholar
35Williamson, DF, Pamuk, E, Thun, M, Flanders, D, Byers, T, Heath, C. Prospective study of intentional weight loss and mortality in never-smoking overweight US white women aged 40–64 years. American Journal of Epidemiology 1995; 141: 1128–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
36Williamson, DF, Pamuk, E, Thun, M, Flanders, D, Byers, T, Heath, C. Prospective study of intentional weight loss and mortality in overweight white men aged 40–64 years. American Journal of Epidemiology 1999; 149: 491–503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
37Sjostrom, CD, Lissner, L, Wedel, H, Sjostrom, L. Reduction in incidence of diabetes, hypertension and lipid disturbances after intentional weight loss induced by bariatric surgery: the SOS intervention study. Obesity Research 1999; 7(5): 477–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
38Glenny, AM, O'Meara, S, Melville, A, Sheldon, TA, Wilson, C. The treatment and prevention of obesity: a systematic review of the literature. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 1997; 21: 715–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
39Douketis, JD, Feightner, JW, Attia, J, Feldman, WF, with the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. Periodic health examination, 1999 update: 1. Detection, prevention and treatment of obesity. Canadian Medical Association Journal 1999; 160(4): 513–25.Google ScholarPubMed
40Cutler, DM, Glaeser, EL, Shapiro, JM. Why Have Americans Become More Obese? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41Glanz, K, Basil, M, Maibach, E, Goldberg, J, Snyder, D. Why Americans eat what they do: taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control concerns as influences on food consumption. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1998; 98(10): 1118–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
42Ministry of Health. Healthy Eating – Healthy Action: oranga kai – oranga pumau: A Strategic Framework. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 2003.Google Scholar