老年肥胖與健康相關性

The Association between Obesity and Health in the Elderly

黃鈞源(Chun-Yuan Huang) ； 黃麗卿(Lee-Ching Hwang)

《台灣老年醫學暨老年學雜誌》 7卷3期 (2012/08) Pp. 149-159

https://doi.org/10.29461/TGG.201208.0001

摘要

台灣老年人口比例增加速度較西方社會更為快速，使得我們面對台灣各種老化問題迫在眉睫。肥胖問題亦是全球正在面臨的重大健康議題。至於老年肥胖又會造成如何的健康效應？許多的西方醫學文獻顯示，老年肥胖與一般成人肥胖不能等同視之，肥胖在老年族群造成的死亡率不如一般成年族群，而形成所謂老年「肥胖矛盾」，目前可解釋此現象的理論包括：追蹤時間不足、選擇性誤差、種族干擾因子與老年肥胖檢測方式的爭議等。但老年肥胖族群仍有較明顯的罹病率與較差的生活品質，臨床醫師在面對肥胖的老人如何給予建議，本文即對此現象做一文獻回顧，希望對此議題提供參考。

關鍵字

老化 ； 老年肥胖 ； 死亡率 ； 肥胖矛盾

並列摘要

The aging population in Taiwan is increasing rapidly while obesity continues to be a major global health problem. How does elderly obesity influence health? Studies have shown that the association between body mass index and mortality in the elderly group differs from the one in general population. The BMI-mortality curves become flatter in the elderly population, reflecting the phenomenon of ”obesity paradox.” Possible explanations for the paradox include limited duration of follow-up, selection bias, ethnicity or race as a confounding factor, and methodological controversies. Elderly obesity, however, remains associated with more obvious morbidity and poorer quality of life. How to tackle the public health problem of elderly obesity in clinical practice? In an attempt to answer the question, this article reviews several studies on elderly obesity.

並列關鍵字

elderly obesity ； obesity paradox ； mortality ； aging