COLUMBIA, S.C., Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Older adults who are obese, but fit, are less likely to die than older adults who are normal weight or lean, but unfit, a U.S. study finds.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, finds cardiorepsiratory fitness rather than body fat is key to predicting longevity in those over age 60.
Dr. Xuemei Sui of the University of South Carolina in Columbia and colleagues examined the associations between cardiorespiratory fitness -- as measured by a treadmill -- and various clinical measures of body fat compared to age at death.
The study included 2,603 adults enrolled in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study. There were 450 deaths during an average follow-up of 12 years.
Fit participants had lower death rates than unfit participants within each body fat group except for two groups. Participants in the higher fitness groups were, for the most part, less likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as hypertension, diabetes or high cholesterol levels. In most instances, death rates for those with higher fitness were less than half the rates for those who were unfit.
