01888nas a2200193   4500008004100000022001400041245010500055210006900160260000900229300001100238490000900249520129800258100001701556700002101573700001901594700002801613700001701641856003601658       2012                        eng d  a2090-071600aComparing years of healthy life, measured in 16 ways, for normal weight and overweight older adults.0 aComparing years of healthy life measured in 16 ways for normal w  c2012  a8948940 v20123 a<p>Introduction. The traditional definitions of overweight and obesity are not age specific, even though the relationship of weight to mortality is different for older adults. Effects of adiposity on aspects of health beside mortality have not been well investigated. Methods. We calculated the number of years of healthy life (YHL) in the 10 years after baseline, for 5,747 older adults. YHL was defined in 16 different ways. We compared Normal and Overweight persons, classified either by body mass index (BMI) or by waist circumference (WC). Findings. YHL for Normal and Overweight persons differed significantly in 25% of the comparisons, of which half favored the Overweight. Measures of physical health favored Normal weight, while measures of mental health and quality of life favored Overweight. Overweight was less favorable when defined by WC than by BMI. Obese persons usually had worse outcomes. Discussion. Overweight older adults averaged as many years of life and years of healthy life as those of Normal weight. There may be no outcome based reason to distinguish Normal from Overweight for older adults. Conclusion. The "Overweight paradox" appears to hold for nonmortality outcomes. New adiposity standards are needed for older adults, possibly different by race and sex.</p>1 aDiehr, Paula1 aThielke, Stephen1 aO'Meara, Ellen1 aFitzpatrick, Annette, L1 aNewman, Anne  uhttps://chs-nhlbi.org/node/1398