title: Disease and weight loss: a prospective study of middle-aged and older adults in Costa Rica and England.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether disease predicts weight loss in population-based studies, as this may confound the relationship between weight and mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used longitudinal data from the Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). We defined two overlapping outcomes of measured weight loss between waves: >1.0 point of body mass index (BMI) and >2.0 BMI points. Logistic regression models estimated the associations with disease, adjusting for age (range 52-79), sex, smoking, and initial BMI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In ELSA, onset of diabetes, cancer, or lung disease is associated with loss >2.0 points (respectively, OR=2.25 [95%CI: 1.34-3.80]; OR=2.70 [95%CI: 1.49-4.89]; OR=1.82 [95%CI: 1.02-3.26]). In CRELES, disease-onset reports are not associated with weight loss at 5% significance, but statistical power to detect associations is poor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although it is known that some diseases cause weight loss, at the population level these associations vary considerably across samples.
authors.affiliation: Office of Population Research, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, Estados Unidos de América.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Blue
authors.affiliation: Office of Population Research, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, Estados Unidos de América.
authors.forename: Noreen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goldman
authors.affiliation: Department of Demography, University of California, Berkeley, California, Estados Unidos de América.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rosero-Bixby
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001168:Arthritis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D015984:Causality; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003364:Costa Rica / Q000453:epidemiology; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D015431:Weight Loss