Introduction
obesity, death
OBESITY
A number of previous reviews on the relationship between BMI and all-cause mortality in older adults (≥ 65 years) have suggested that individuals with a BMI in the overweight range (BMI 25–29.9 kg/mThese reports have predominately focused on BMI and its association with all-cause mortality, whilst much less information exists in relation to sex-specific or cause-specific mortalityDuring the ASPREE clinical trial, standardised measures of weight, height and abdominal circumference were made on over 19,000 generally healthy men and women mostly aged 70 years or older. Over the subsequent 6.9 years, clinical records were reviewed (in most cases) to systematically identify the underlying cause of death. This information has provided the most comprehensive and reliable data on the relationship between different measures of obesity and cause-specific mortality yet available in older adults.Given the increasing proportion of the population aged 60 years and above, which is projected to increase from 1 billion in 2020 to 2.1 billion by 2050