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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Fat Senior Citizens Finally Get Good News: Not
Likely to Get Tuberculosis
Study in China finds tall, thin people most likely to
get tuberculosis, but Americans don't see TB as serious threat, Gallup
finds
 June 27, 2007 At last some good news for
overweight senior citizens, you may be less likely to get tuberculosis
than those normal weight seniors. The study results may not be too
exciting to obese older
Americans, however, since TB is virtually gone in this country; and, most
in a Gallup Poll do not feel it is a serious threat anywhere. The TB
study was done in China and challenges common belief that TB is
associated with poverty and malnutrition.
But, according to the study in the June 25 issue of
Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, the
researchers are unable to explain these results.
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Health & Medicine |
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Tuberculosis is commonly associated with poverty
and under nutrition in both developed and developing countries. In
addition, obesity is an increasing problem that is associated with a
wide range of chronic degenerative conditions, notably, diabetes
mellitus, a well-reported predisposing factor for active tuberculosis,
according to background information in the article.
Few studies have systematically examined the
effect of obesity and overweight on tuberculosis, especially in Asian
populations.
Chi C. Leung, M.B.B.S., Tuberculosis and Chest
Service, Hong Kong, and colleagues, studied 42,116 individuals 65 years
or older enrolled in 18 health centers for elderly patients in Hong
Kong. The patients were followed up from three months after enrollment
in 2000 until December 31, 2005.
The body mass index (BMI) of each patient was
measured at the beginning of the study. Those with a BMI of less than
18.5 were grouped as underweight, 18.5 to less than 23 as normal, 23 to
less than 25 as at risk (for obesity), 25 to less than 30 as overweight,
and 30 or higher as obese.
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Americans Just
Don't See TB as Serious Threat, Finds Gallup
June 26, 2007 - The
honeymooning Georgia lawyer who traveled to Europe and back with a
particularly virulent strain of tuberculosis made headlines in the
United States during the last month, but Americans appear to have viewed
the episode as a human interest story, not a health scare. The Centers
for Disease Control categorizes tuberculosis as among the world's
leading causes of death and disease, but most Americans don't consider
tuberculosis a very serious problem around the world, according to a
recent Gallup Poll.
"In a recent Gallup
Poll, many more respondents say HIV/AIDS (82%) and cancer (79%) are very
serious global health problems," says the report from the Gallup News
Service. "Nearly as many rate poor nutrition this seriously (75%). At
the bottom of the list, tuberculosis ties with malaria for fourth out of
the five diseases rated, with only 24% of Americans rating either one as
'very serious.'"
Interestingly,
about 2 in 10 (23%) rate tuberculosis as "not serious," and more people
consider it "somewhat serious" than they do "very serious."
>>
Read the full report at Gallup, click here
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During the follow-up period, 477 cases of active
tuberculosis were reported, 326 (68.3 percent) of which were confirmed
using cultures of the bacteria involved. The average time between
enrollment and notification of tuberculosis was 881 days.
There were 395 new cases (82.8 percent) and 82
retreatment cases (17.2 percent). Pulmonary [lung] involvement was found
in 426 cases (89.3 percent) and extrapulmonary [outside the lung]
involvement in 87 (18.2 percent), including 36 cases (7.5 percent) with
both, the authors write.
Those who got TB were taller and thinner
Individuals who developed active tuberculosis were
taller on average, but had a lower body weight and BMI (22.5 vs. 24.3)
at the beginning of the study than those who did not. BMI outside the
range of 18.5 to 23 decreased the active tuberculosis risk by 23.5
percent of the observed level.
Baseline BMI obesity at 25 or above was associated
with a 30.1 percent decrease in risk, whereas BMI lower than 18.5
increased the risk by 6.6 percent, according to the authors. A higher
average initial BMI was found in pulmonary-only cases than in
extrapulmonary-only cases (22.3 vs. 24.1).
Obesity is associated with a lower risk of active
pulmonary tuberculosis in the older population of Hong Kong, the
authors conclude.
The presence of such a strong but selective
association across the whole spectrum of BMI could have major
biological, clinical and/or epidemiological implications. Further
studies are indicated to explore the underlying mechanisms, potential
clinical utilities and possible epidemiological consequences.
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