title: Is fatness really a risk indicator of death? A 10-16-year prospective study of patients attending the primary health care services.
abstract: A 10-16-year prospective study comprising more than 26 000 person-years was performed, to analyse whether or not patients receiving care within the primary health care services had a body mass index (BMI) related to mortality. When the mortality in the high and low BMI groups was compared with the medium one, the ratios did not differ significantly from one another. Thus, in this study, comprising patients attending primary health care, neither high BMI nor low BMI was found to be a risk indicator of death, thereby supporting earlier results from studies on BMI as a function of morbidity. BMI, or the degree of fatness, should therefore not be stressed as a general risk indicator of morbidity or mortality in patients attending the primary health care services.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity; D009765:Obesity / Q000401:mortality*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors