Healthy lifestyle habits and mortality in overweight and obese individuals
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Though the benefits of healthy lifestyle choices are well-established among the general population, less is known about how developing and adhering to healthy lifestyle habits benefits obese versus normal weight or overweight individuals. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between healthy lifestyle habits (eating 5 or more fruits and vegetables daily, exercising regularly, consuming alcohol in moderation, and not smoking) and mortality in a large, population-based sample stratified by body mass index (BMI). METHODS: We examined the association between healthy lifestyle habits and mortality in a sample of 11,761 men and women from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III; subjects were ages 21 and older and fell at various points along the BMI scale, from normal weight to obese. Subjects were enrolled between October 1988 and October 1994 and were followed for an average of 170 months. RESULTS: After multivariable adjustment for age, sex, race, education, and marital status, the hazard ratios (95% CIs) for all-cause mortality for individuals who adhered to 0, 1, 2, or 3 healthy habits were 3.27 (2.36-4.54), 2.59 (2.06-3.25), 1.74 (1.51-2.02), and 1.29 (1.09-1.53), respectively, relative to individuals who adhered to all 4 healthy habits. When stratified into normal weight, overweight, and obese groups, all groups benefited from the adoption of healthy habits, with the greatest benefit seen within the obese group. CONCLUSIONS: Healthy lifestyle habits are associated with a significant decrease in mortality regardless of baseline body mass index.
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Lifestyle changes over the long term will likely improve health even without major weight loss.
“Such lifestyle changes over the long-term will likely improve the health of patients even in the absence of major weight loss96.”
From Maintenance of Lost Weight and Long-Term Management of Obesity (2018) · cites this paper as [96]
The Discussion (page not provided) associates healthy habits with lower mortality regardless of baseline BMI, supporting the expectation of a long-term health benefit. But the study did not measure whether participants changed their habits or lost weight, so it does not establish that the benefit occurs specifically without major weight loss. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAltering any health behaviors leads to a reduction in the risk factors for preventable non-communicable diseases.
“Even if it is well understood that altering any health behaviors leads to a reduction in the risk factors for preventable non-communicable diseases [18,20,26-33].”
High circulating insulin is a key indicator for metabolic health issues in overfat adults.
“one of the key indicators for metabolic health issues for adults that are overfat is high levels of circulating insulin”
Changes in humoral factors are necessary for improvement in health status.
“The changes elicited in humoral factors (e.g., hormone/cytokines, blood lipids and biomarkers of inflammation) are necessary for improvement in health status that many have previously discussed in a number of reviews on this topic [18-21,26,31,32,34,42].”
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- Authors
- Matheson, E. M., King, D. E., & Everett, C. J.
- Affiliations
- Medical University of South Carolina (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
- Published
- 2012-01-01
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 9-15
- ISSN
- 1557-2625 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-7118
- OpenAlex
- W2116098927
- Semantic Scholar
- 16393edc633aa84ff3fe69b5371ae810a672fa2c
- Cited by
- 150
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 8.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Lifestyle Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiovascular Health and Risk Factors
- Keywords
- healthy lifestyle habits, all-cause mortality, obesity, overweight, body mass index, fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, lifestyle adherence, NHANES III
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Life Style, Male, Middle Aged, Mortality, Obesity, United States, Body Mass Index, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Reduction Behavior, Overweight, Young Adult
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