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Being Overweight Appears Associated With Slightly Lower All-Cause Mortality Relative To Normal Weight

INTRO: B-M-I or Body Mass Index can help determine how much fat is carried in the body. The B-M-I also corresponds to particular weight categories that may indicate certain health problems. A new study examined standard B-M-I categories of normal weight, overweight and obesity and the association with mortality. Catherine Dolf explains in this week’s JAMA Report.

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Various people of different shapes and sizes walking on street

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PEOPLE COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES. THE BODY MASS INDEX OR B-M-I CAN PROVIDE IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON HOW MUCH FAT WE CARRY IN OUR BODY.

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SOT/FULL Super @:08 Katherine M. Flegal, Ph.D., – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Runs:08

“Researchers are using a lot of different BMI categories so it’s very hard to compare one study with another study cause their not using the same categories.”

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Dr. Flegal walking, Graphic: Studies one on top of another

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DR. KATHERINE FLEGAL (Flee-gul) FROM THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION AND CO-AUTHORS COMPILED 97 STUDIES FROM THE UNITED STATES AND AROUND THE WORLD.

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SOT/FULL Super @:25 Katherine M. Flegal, Ph.D., – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  Runs:05

“There were almost three million people in all these studies and over 270 thousand deaths.”

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Graphic: Composite of different weight categories

Graphic: World Health Organization and National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute wipe in

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RESEARCHERS LOOKED FOR STUDIES USING THE STANDARD B-M-I CATEGORIES OF NORMAL WEIGHT, OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY. THESE CATEGORIES WERE DEVELOPED BY THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION AND THE NATIONAL HEART, LUNG AND BLOOD INSTITUTE.

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SOT/FULL Super @:42 Katherine M. Flegal, Ph.D., – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Runs:08

“And they all look at all-cause mortality in these different categories and make comparisons between the normal weight categories and the other categories.”

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GXF FULL JAMA COVER

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THE STUDY APPEARS IN JAMA, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

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SOT/FULL Super @:54 Katherine M. Flegal, Ph.D., – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Runs:12

“Obesity was associated with higher mortality relative to the normal weight category. Within those categories the lower grade of obesity was actually not associated with extra mortality relative to normal weight only the higher grades of obesity were.”

(Video covering  Graphic: 3 obesity categories comes forward, Grade 1 comes forward again then goes back.

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Overweight people walking, normal weight people walking

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RESEARCHERS ALSO FOUND THAT BEING OVERWEIGHT WAS ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER MORTALITY RELATIVE TO THE NORMAL WEIGHT CATEGORY.

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SOT/FULL Super @ 1:14 Katherine M. Flegal, Ph.D., – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Runs:11

“Sometimes that surprises people but they really should not be too surprised, cause in our categories of these 97 studies 80 percent of them showed that there was lower mortality in overweight than normal weight people.”

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Dr. Flegal sitting at computer, people walking on the street

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DR. FLEGAL ALSO POINTS OUT THAT THESE FINDINGS WERE CONSISTENT EVEN THOUGH THEY INVOLVED PEOPLE OF ALL DIFFERENT AGES AND WHO WERE IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD. CATHERINE DOLF, THE JAMA REPORT.

TAG:RESEARCHERS SAY THIS IS THE FIRST TIME A MAJORITY OF THIS LITERATURE WAS COMPILED AND SUMMARIZED TO ESTABLISH A BASELINE OF INFORMATION.