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© 1996 Oxford University Press

research-article

Weight, Height and Body Mass Index Distributions in Geographically and Ethnically Diverse Samples of Older Persons

LENORE J. LAUNER1, TAMARA HARRIS2 and on behalf of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Statistics of Anthropometry and Aging*

1National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, RIVM/CCM PO Box 1, 3720 BA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
2Epidemiology, Demography and Biostatistics Program, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health USA

We compared anthropometric data (height, weight and body mass index) from 19 geographically and ethnically varied samples of community-dwelling elderly people. Participants were stratified into three age groups, 60–69, 70–79 and 80 years or older. We present age-group-specific means and standard deviations for height, weight and body mass index (BMI, weight/height2) and the prevalence of underweight (BMI < 20) and overweight (BMI >= 30).

Across studies there are large differences in the prevalence of overweight and underweight, but in all studies mean height and BMI decreased with age. In general, mean BMI among 70–79-year-old women is greater than that for men of a similar age, and the Mediterranean samples are heavier for height than samples from Western Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States.

The comparisons suggest that the sensitivity and specificity of a fixed cut-off for underweight and overweight are likely to differ by sex, age, and geographic location in samples of older persons.

Keywords: Anthropometry, Elderly people, Screening, Epidemiology

Revision received December 11, 1995.
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