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Sustained Weight Loss in Midlife Slashes Chronic Disease and Mortality Risks, suggests study

Few studies have examined long-term health benefits among individuals with sustained weight loss beyond its association with decreased diabetes risk.
A study was done to examine the long-term association of body mass index (BMI; calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) changes during healthy midlife (ages 40-50 years) with later-life morbidity and mortality.
This cohort study analyzed data from 3 cohorts that included repeated height and weight measurements: the Whitehall II study (WHII; baseline, 1985-1988), Helsinki Businessmen Study (HBS; baseline, 1964-1973), and Finnish Public Sector study (FPS; baseline, 2000). Participants were categorized into 4 groups based on their first 2 weight assessments and followed up for morbidity and mortality outcomes. Data analyses were conducted between February 11, 2024, and February 20, 2025. Incident chronic disease, including type 2 diabetes, myocardial infarction, stroke, cancer, asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was assessed in WHII and FPS, and all-cause mortality was assessed in HBS. These outcomes were obtained from linked electronic health records in national health registries. Results There were 23 149 participants, including 4118 men and women (median [IQR] age at first visit, 39 [37-42] years; 2968 men [72.1%]) from WHII, 2335 men (median [IQR] age at first visit, 42 [38-45] years) from HBS, and 16 696 men and women (median [IQR] age at first visit, 39 [34-43] years; 13 785 women [82.6%]) from FPS. During a median (IQR) follow-up of 22.8 (16.9-23.3) years, after adjusting for smoking, systolic blood pressure, and serum cholesterol at the first evaluation, WHII participants with weight loss had a decreased risk of developing chronic disease (hazard ratio [HR], 0.52; 95% CI, 0.35-0.78) compared with participants with persistent overweight. This finding was replicated after excluding diabetes from the outcome (HR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.37-0.90). The corresponding HR in FPS was 0.43 (95% CI, 0.29-0.66) over a median (IQR) follow-up of 12.2 (8.2-12.2) years.
In HBS, weight loss was associated with decreased mortality (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.68-0.96) during an extended follow-up (median [IQR], 35 [24-43] years). In this study, conducted when surgical and pharmacological weight-loss interventions were nearly nonexistent, sustained midlife weight loss compared with persistent overweight was associated with a decreased risk of chronic diseases beyond type 2 diabetes and decreased all-cause mortality.
Reference:
Strandberg TE, Strandberg AY, Jyväkorpi S, et al. Weight Loss in Midlife, Chronic Disease Incidence, and All-Cause Mortality During Extended Follow-Up. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(5):e2511825. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.11825
Dr. Shravani Dali has completed her BDS from Pravara institute of medical sciences, loni. Following which she extensively worked in the healthcare sector for 2+ years. She has been actively involved in writing blogs in field of health and wellness. Currently she is pursuing her Masters of public health-health administration from Tata institute of social sciences. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.
Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751